In today’s broadband and mobile Internet age, 90% of the work you do on a computer involves the Internet. This fact makes using different browsers sometimes necessary since there is always a browser that is better at one thing and worse at another. When hearing “Browser” or “Internet” what do you think of first? My guess would be Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari or Firefox. But what about the less popular browsers that don’t have the user base to make such an impression and reach the top 5? Just for fun, we wrote up a groovy Old -School review of some browsers you may have never heard of before.
Flock
It’s not a sure thing that you haven’t heard of this browser; any Mozilla fan who sticks around the latest Firefox News would surely know about Flock. Flock is a browser that always keeps your entire social life in a small toolbar on the side of your page. Instead of using separate programs or visiting the websites over and over again you can always keep an eye on your online social life whenever you’re browsing. Flock is Mozilla Firefox based, so if you’re a “Firefoxer,” you’ll find that there is little to no difference in the rest of Flock’s interface. Overall, Flock is a good browser that has the potential of becoming a powerful and well-known browser one day. Here’s an example of browsing the internet while keeping an eye on my twitter:
Avant Browser
Now here is a browser with some serious potential. Avant is an old browser that used to be quite popular back in the day. It’s biggest problems are that it suffers from a horrible and very non-user-friendly UI and that sometimes it crashes on pages for no reason at all. Avant still offers great additional features, such as the ability to upload your Bookmarks, Passwords, and RSS feeds online and manage them in your very own personal account. The browser even has it’s Private Mode, where it shares minimal information about you and saves no history – it’s like the private tab in Opera and the Incognito window in Chrome. It works great, and it’s pretty groovy. All this stuff is free and is in fact quite stunning. Now what’s left to do is to figure out why things didn’t work out so well for Avant when it joined the “Browser Wars.”
Netscape Navigator
Okay, so yet again, this browser isn’t so forgotten. Most people will certainly leave a secret place in their hearts to remember Netscape – whether it will be the incredible instability, poor support or horribly inaccurate page viewing, the browser will surely be remembered. AS A JOKE. Needless to say that if you’ve used Netscape, you know all about it, but for those of you who lay their eyes on Netscape for the first time, we would advise you to stay away from this browser no matter what. Seriously, it even loaded our web page incorrectly.
DeepNet Explorer
Dive in! DeepNet Explorer takes things straight to the middle of nowhere – the browser is both good and bad, but worst of all it’s based on IE8 and IE7. DeepNet comes packed with some nice things such as a fully functional RSS reader and an excellent P2P service. What stopped it from being successful was probably the lack of user-friendliness and the blazing SLOW speed at which it loads pages. Enough said.
Maxthon
Now here is a browser that seems to appeal to me. It has a nice look; it’s got something like Opera’s Speed Dial and it has no problems loading pages. It doesn’t impress with any additional features or extras, but it works just fine and is very user-friendly because of its simplicity.
SlimBrowser
Now there’s a browser that deserves a lot of attention. It says it by itself – it’s light, sexy and it does what it’s meant to do – browse the Internet. You’re quite limited regarding functions, but if you’re looking for a quick and reliable browser for your netbook or a very slow computer SlimBrowser would be your number 1 choice!
PhaseOut
I shouldn’t be talking about this browser since I’ve never used it. And I can’t. It’s incredibly difficult to find a working download link, and when I did find one after installing PhaseOut said that it requires Flash 5 to run. Yeah, just imagine how old that thing is. Luckily enough, there are some screenshots around the Internet, and just by the looks of it, I would say the browser had better looks than actual functionality. The first time I saw it, I even thought it’s a complicated skin for Windows Media Player…
In the end, all of these alternate browsers failed to impress. It shows just why they didn’t make the top 5 list, but it was fun to look at them and try them out. Beyond the horrible UI’s and mixed functionality they didn’t have any redeeming features. But what about the decent alternate browsers, like SlimBrowser? Maybe they didn’t make it into the top because even if they were good working and functional, they didn’t offer anything new, so there was no reason to switch to another browser at all. As for me, after reviewing all of these, I’ll be sticking to my old favorite Opera. If you’re interested in looking at a browser that hasn’t even come out yet, you might want to take a look at The Preview of Internet Explorer 9. Have a groovy weekend! First time i visit your blog (Y) nice one (Y) See you First time i visit your blog (Y) nice one (Y) See you BUT “Avira” told me, “phase out\phaseout.exe’ enthielt einen Virus oder unerwünschtes Programm ‘DR/NavExcel.P’ [dropper].” Comment
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