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I’ve recently been talking about Google’s new browser, Chrome, looking at why you might want to and not want to use it. So I thought I’d recap other browsers as well.

One which can’t be ignored is Internet Explorer 6 (IE6).

IE6 is probably the longest surviving web browser of all time, and is both loved and hated.

Ye old Browser

It came out in August of 2001, over 7 years ago at this point of this writing, which in Internet years means it might as well be over 700 years old.

While IE6 was highly touted as the most advanced browser when it was released, 7 years makes those features “old hat” . Newer browsers and versions have been released with even newer and better features since IE6′s initial release.

Why Upgrade

So why should you upgrade to a newer browser? Glad you asked:

1. Newer browsers have built in support to protect you from phishing attacks. These include displaying prominent messages when dealing with a potentially dangerous site.
2. Reduced chance of being hacked. IE6′s security model lends it self to being easy to hack your computer.
3. Improved support of web standards. – IE6 is the bane of web developers because of incompatibilities with current web standards, which provide an inconsistent experience compared to other browsers. Modern browsers tend to support standards more consistently.  This means that what you see on the screen is more likely to be correct, and web applications are more likely to work correctly.
4. Improved stability. IE6 is known to be a bit flaky, and crash when dealing with intense websites.
5. Improved User Interface. Most modern browsers have improved the user experience, including things like easier ways to organize your bookmarks/favorites, built in search box, etc.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Google Chrome

In our last two posts we talked about Google Chrome. We looked most recently at why you should use Chrome. But to be fair, it isn’t the only browser out there, and some say it needs more polish to be a serious browser.

Here are some reasons to look at not using Chrome.

• (Currently) no extensions for Chrome. This will affect power users more than any one else, especially Firefox users. The power of extensions is immeasurable as it allows you to improve your experience on the web. Extensions are what makes Firefox the browser of choice for many users, and they will not likely willingly give up their favorite addons.
• I see ads. Chief among these extensions are the various Ad Blockers. It is in Google’s self interest to allow ads, as this is how they make their money. However displaying all these ads makes pages take longer to load and display. It also effects your bandwidth if you surf in a limited bandwidth environment.
• Some Internet Explorer 6 sites will not work. Some sites are designed strictly for IE6. This means that only IE will work, and in some cases not even newer versions of IE. I have to use a couple of these sites for work, so I still use Internet Explorer for them.
• No improvement in Flash Sites/Components. Google improved the JavaScript performance, because they do a lot with JavaScript. However, Flash is being used on many other sites to display graphs, charts, and add interactivity. I would say that Flash is used more often than JavaScript, and Flash is not addressed by Chrome.
• Lack of support for Linux and Macintosh computers. They are supposed to be coming however, but they are not here yet.
• Chrome is a stripped down browser in many ways. While this makes it easy to use, users may be confused by the lack of standard buttons, like there is no home button, or print button.
• Of course there are many rumors and fears about it being run by Google: (so far these are only fears, but who knows what future versions will hold)
  • Google can track my Internet use more
  • Google will prevent me from going to competing sites/search engines
  • Google will replace others ads with their own
  • Google will additional ads

Memory usage of Chrome Browser

Also interesting to note is that Chrome, while it is supposed to use a smaller memory foot print, might actually use more in the short term. This is because it uses multiple processes, each with their own memory usage, instead of one large chunk of memory. I’m currently running Chrome as my (almost) exclusive browser this week to see how it handles itself over time.

I also expect that when Chrome starts to allow extensions, it will slow a it down a bit.

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Popularity: unranked [?]

Because the market wasn’t crowded enough with different, free web browsers, Google has decided to add their own browser, called Chrome. So now in addition to Internet Explorer (active versions are 6 and 7, with 8 in beta) we now also have Firefox (with versions 2 and 3 both being actively used), Opera, Safari, and now Chrome. This does make it a bit challenging for a web developer to work.

For the End User

For the Web Developer and Web Site Owner

This will add another level of complexity to your web site design.  Luckily as a standards based browser, it should work well, if your site already works well with Safari and Firefox for example.

If you are developing complex client side apps, it should help you, as it works to improve the performance of the site.

Looking Forward

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In the past, the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live, et all) couldn’t really search Flash files that well. Well Adobe has been working with the search engines to allow them to search the Flash sites, widgets, buttons, and more.

This is good news on the surface, but still requires one digging a little deeper before trying to get a nifty Flash site. Here are three quick take aways to know about, before

The first thing to know, is you still have to use text, as text, to be searchable. Many Flash developers convert the text into something known as shapes so that they can manipulate it easier to look nice on your screen. While your site will look nicer overall, it will cause the search engine to fail to read that part of you Flash site.

Second, most search engines cannot run JavaScript. Because of a software patent issue, Internet Explorer needs JavaScript to write the Flash file to the webpage. So now, in many cases, your Flash site is no longer searchable.

Flash screens, are not the same as web pages, and that means it will be harder to isolate a topic and rank for it, when looking at the overall site with all of the other text working along with it. Add upon that, that most Flash developers are inexperienced at Search Engine Optimization, and lack good tools to build a search optimized site (links, individual pages, helpful page elements, etc) they will most likely not be able to help you rank like a good HTML based website could.

Overall, I would hold off on developing your all Flash based sites if you are interested in long term Search Engine rankings. (Besides, most developers charge more for Flash sites – use that money to make more content which can rank in the search engines, it will be money better spent.)

SEOmoz has more information on his views on why Flash and Search Engines still don’t mix.

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