- The bad news just keeps coming from Microsoft -- this
week alone the company released a patch for seven new security vulnerabilities,
three of them affecting the company's Internet Explorer browser and described
as "critical" flaws by Microsoft.
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- And in response to the recent plethora of patches, there
seems to be a bit of a Microsoft mutiny happening. According to analyst
firm WebSideStory, there has been a 1 percent drop in Internet Explorer
use over the past month, from 95.73 percent on June 4 to 94.73 percent
on July 6. It's the first time WebSideStory has ever seen Internet Explorer
usage take a dive.
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- No program coded by humans will ever be 100 percent secure,
but we can make malicious hackers' lives more difficult by using a variety
of browsers. Having 94.73 percent of all Web surfers using one application
provides too big of a target, and the problem is compounded by Microsoft's
unfortunate insistence on tying Explorer so tightly to the Windows operating
system.
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- Mozilla and the Firefox browser have gotten a lot of
press lately, but even if you're a longtime Moz fan and can't imagine ever
wanting or needing another browser, the following offerings are well worth
checking out. You might opt to use one of them when doing specific tasks
online, or you might be completely won over and decide to settle on one
of them as your default Web-wandering application.
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- IRider (free 21-day trial, $30)
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- Wymea Bay's iRider has an especially broad offering of
features -- so many that you really do need to watch an online movie to
understand how to best use the application. Despite my preference for streamlined
applications, iRider really impressed me -- the application isn't loaded
with useless bells and whistles, and almost every feature makes perfect
sense.
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- Most interesting is iRider's thumbnail navigation system,
which puts a tiny snapshot of each Web page that you have open into one
list that runs along the side of the browser's window. The list scrolls
automatically as you move through pages, and you can also drag your cursor
across the list to flip through Web pages as you would a book, with pages
appearing in the active window as you move down the list.
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- You can drag across several pages' "close"
buttons rather than clicking your way through a plethora of tabs to close
them. You can copy a chunk of text from an e-mail, instant-messenger screen
or any document that contains several URLs and then paste them into iRider
to open all the pages. And -- one of my favorite features -- you can bookmark
multiple pages at once, and even send them as a group to a new bookmarks
folder.
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- In addition, you can "pin" pages to the navigation
list so that you don't accidentally close them (as is all too common with
tabbed page-navigation systems like Mozilla's), and you can also designate
permanently pinned pages which will be loaded each time you open iRider.
So if you've ever wanted to have a half-dozen or more homepages, now you
can.
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- IRider appears not to be vulnerable to most of the security
exploits that plague Internet Explorer, especially if you follow the company's
advice on how to configure the browser for maximum security.
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- My only quibble with iRider is that it doesn't have a
built-in pop-up stopper. Instead, it pops ads under the windows you currently
have open. The idea, according to the browser's documentation, is that
"pop-up blockers block some pages you might want to see, and deny
free websites the ad-views they need to survive." So iRider has opted
not to kill them. Bummer.
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- Deepnet Explorer (free)
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- Deepnet Technologies' Deepnet Explorer browser does have
a pop-up killer, along with a number of other useful features that other
browsers lack. The most interesting is its built-in file-sharing function,
which lets you easily access files from the Gnutella network, and its excellent
inline support for RSS news feeds.
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- Apart from the above, Deepnet has all the features that
you'd expect a modern browser to have, such as tabbed navigation, automatic
form fill-in, a password and log-in manager and a direct-search function
that allows you to search from the address (URL) bar.
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- As far as security is concerned, Deepnet spokeswoman
Anneli Ritari noted that "Deepnet Explorer does not support any third-party
plug-ins. We prefer to develop and build in the features instead of enabling
plug-ins, including the so-called Browser Helper Objects, so it could be
argued that Deepnet is more secure than Internet Explorer or Mozilla."
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- A Browser Helper Object gives website developers a lot
of control over Internet Explorer during a browsing session. The original
idea was to extend Internet Explorer's abilities, and, when used as intended,
Browser Helper Objects are quite useful. But spyware vendors also use these
helpers to help them compromise computer security and users' privacy.
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- Deepnet is fast and quite functional, and users don't
need a manual or a movie to figure out how it works. That said, for most
people, its most tempting feature is likely to be the P2P file-sharing
support.
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- Opera (free with ads, $39 ad-free version)
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- Opera Software's Opera browser doesn't support plug-ins
either, but all the features you're apt to want are already built into
the browser. The application is also highly customizable, presenting users
with a vast number of privacy, language and interface choices.
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- Among Opera's many interesting features is one called
Hotclick. Double-click on a word on a Web page, and a menu pops up to allow
you to launch a search for that word, translate it or get a dictionary
or encyclopedia definition.
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- Opera also has an automatic reload function that refreshes
Web pages at regular intervals, an "undo" feature that lets you
open Web pages you mistakenly close and a full-featured chat client.
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- But Opera encounters more difficulties rendering buggy
or nonstandard Web pages (especially links containing JavaScript) than
Firefox, Internet Explorer, iRider or Deepnet. Whether that's an issue
for you depends entirely on the websites you tend to browse.
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- Safari (free)
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- Last but not least, and lest we get pelted with e-mails
from disgruntled Mac fans, there's Apple Computer's own Safari, a snappy
browser with built-in Google search, an excellent download manager and
a built-in pop-up blocker.
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- Safari, which only works on computers running Apple's
Mac OS X operating system, tends to choke on some JavaScripted sites, but
that should be fixed soon, Apple has promised.
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- © Copyright 2004, Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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