Internet Browsers
A browser is, basically, a software program that allows you to view web pages on the internet. If you are reading this, you're using a browser. There are different web browsers available for you to use, and here we provide some information on the most popular ones.
Internet Explorer (IE)
Internet Explorer is the most widely used browser today. That is probably attributed to the fact that it is a standard part of Microsoft operating systems, and is the only browser preinstalled on home PC's using Microsoft Windows systems. Historically, IE has tended to interpret website coding following its own standards, which can result in web pages displaying differently between IE and other browsers which are more compliant with website standards. Since IE was the dominant browser for many years with little competition, this wasn't a major factor, and website designers simply went with the flow. However, with the introduction and gaining popularity of other web browsers that are more standards compliant, the different rendering of sites became a huge issue. This rendering difference can often be frustrating to web designers, as they have often needed to create separate display conditions and css rules so that their pages look the same across all browsers.
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla's Firefox open source web browser has made huge gains in IE's popularity and usage, and for many web designers it is the browser of choice. Many people feel that, because Firefox does follow compliancy standards better than IE that results in display issues between the two, it has forced Microsoft to get their product up to speed. It has become common for designers to build their sites with Firefox now, and make code adjustments for IE's display issues along the way. Being open source and having a huge worldwide user community, Firefox has hundreds of add ons for a better browsing experience, and many add ons made specifically for web designers to aid in site creation.
Opera
Opera was one of the first browsers to support Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), now a major building block of web design. Today, Opera supports many web standards, including CSS 2.1, HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.1, XHTML Basic and more. Since version 9, Opera passes the Acid2 test, a test of whether or not a browser properly supports certain web standards. Opera was the fourth web browser to pass the test and the first Windows browser to pass the test.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google and based on the WebKit layout engine and application framework. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or "chrome", of web browsers. In April 2009, Chrome was the fourth most widely used browser, with 1.42% of worldwide usage share of web browsers.