Browsers - what a great word

I have finally been convinced to try a new browser out. I have been using CrazyBrowser for quite a while now and I liked it for several reasons:- tabbed windows - built in popup blocker - groups of favorites - P3P privacy policy and zone-based security assignments Crazy Browser is not IE plug-in or add-on, it just uses the IE API to render pages. However the guy that develops it has not released an update for it in well over a year. My colleague Dan has been touting the virtues of Avant Browser for ages and I have been duly ignoring him. Well today his nagging finally won me over and I installed Avant Browser. I'm now a convert. It has some great features: - Built-in Pop-up Stopper - Flash Animation Filter - Multi-Window Browsing - Blocks AD banners/buttons - Records Cleaner - Mouse Gestures Very impressive. Fast, clean interface - I like it. Now, to address those who might want to know why I don't use Mozilla or Firebird, the open source browsers. Well, I do. Sometimes. The thing is, I'm a webmaster and I have to design sites that are compatible with the standard web experience, and, like it or not, that experience is overwhelmingly driven by IE. Therefore, when we build a page or site, we have to test it in IE to ensure that the ~80% of users that use IE are going to see the site the way we intended. That said, we as an organization, support IE AND Netscape so we must test it on both. Do I extol the virtues of IE? No, no I don't. That's why I don't use the browser, I use an extension thereof. And that "extension" cures many of the ills once associated with IE. Not all...many. Anyway, for my day to day browsing needs, I think I'll be using a combination of Avant Browser and Firebird (Mozilla is waaaaay to slow to be considered for casual browsing.) As for the browser war? Microsoft have got to get their shit together if they want to keep up with the tide of better browsers that are appearing. For further reading, check out Mike's take on the recent IE phishing problems, he has some good points about Microsoft's reluctance to address potential security problems in a timely manner.