This\r\nscreenshot gallery is also available as a TechRepublic article.
Considering\r\nthat the World Wide Web is such an important part of our lives, using the right\r\nbrowser to service our needs is one of the most important components for using\r\nthe Internet. Aside from the standard fare of Internet Explorer, Firefox and\r\nChrome, there are other alternative web browsers that deserve a fair look. Some\r\nof them are based on pre-existing major browser projects like Chromium, while others\r\nstrive for a purist “from scratch” approach. For the Windows\r\nplatform, here are five solid alternative choices to the browser scene.
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Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
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\r\n\r\nThose looking to have it\r\nall, and then some, need to look no further than the Avant Browser. In addition to the\r\ntri-core switchable rendering engine capability, which allows you to switch\r\nbetween Trident, Gecko, and Webkit rendering engines effortlessly, there simply\r\nis no shortage of settings and tweaks at your disposal. You can set URL\r\ncompatibility by browser engine, create mouse gestures for seamless navigation,\r\nstore passwords in a password protected cache and even upload bookmarks and\r\nbrowser settings to the cloud for quick restoration later.
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Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
\r\n\r\nThis Chinese-made\r\nweb-browser has been turning heads in recent years, with its superb attention\r\nto detail and useful extras. Three features that stand out the most in Maxthon are the extension sidebar, which\r\ngrants the user speedy access to installed add-ons, a very polished download\r\nmanager that can upload downloads to a cloud storage area for safe keeping, and\r\na multi-PC browser sync. Now, thanks to their massive push into the smartphone\r\nand tablet arena, Maxthon will even sync browser data to supported mobile\r\ndevices.
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Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
\r\n\r\nSecurity-minded individuals\r\nthat value their privacy will appreciate what this next choice has on tap.\r\nGerman software house SRWare has a browser\r\nbased on Chromium called Iron. It does away with any unique identifying\r\ninformation that can tie your browser back to you, as well as disabling Omnibox\r\nauto-complete and other Google-specific code. Yet in spite of all these\r\nchanges, the browser looks and functions virtually the same to standard Google\r\nChrome, meaning all your browser extensions will work just fine.
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Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
\r\n\r\nSometimes, simple really is\r\nbetter, and Midori is out to turn\r\nsimplicity into an art form. Although you won’t be looking to use this browser\r\non rather plugin-heavy sites or for a large variety of extensions, Midori is\r\nquite swift at rendering standard web pages with JavaScript, HTML5, and other\r\nstandards-compliant frameworks. Development is still rather young compared to\r\nother browsers, but its capabilities grow each day, and it’s rather impressive\r\nwork coming from a smaller open-source team.
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Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
\r\n\r\nAnd finally, when you need\r\na browser that makes obfuscating web traffic easy as pie, Tor Browser should be considered\r\nheavily. Several notable features are the portable EXE format for easy\r\ntransport on a flash drive, the inclusion of several security conscious plugins\r\nlike NoScript and HTTPS Anywhere, and the Vidalia Control Panel, which allows\r\nyou to refresh your online “identity” and monitor bandwidth usage on\r\nthe Tor network quickly and easily.
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Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
Credit: Images by\r\nMatthew Nawrocki for TechRepublic
A former avid technology writer and an IT guru, Matthew is here to help bring the best in software, hardware and the web to the collective consciousness of TechRepublic's readership. In addition to writing for TechRepublic, Matthew currently works as a Customer Success Professional for Ultimate Software in Santa Ana, California.
