Features

Mozilla Firefox 18 is the latest version of the popular web browser and brings with it a few key and welcome new features. First among them is the company's claim to a speedier, safer browsing experience. Tests reveal that this newest version of Mozilla Firefox is certainly quick to load even the most graphics intense pages.

Firefox 18 also now features secure connections when performing Google searches to improve privacy and there's an updated site identity indicator in the URL bar. Windows users also now get silent updates while Mac users on Lion or above can use Firefox in full-screen mode.

Mozilla Firefox's new tab layout itself is a pretty noticeable new feature. Quite similar to Google's Chrome browser, instead of seeing a blank page whenever a new tab is opened Firefox users will now be treated to icons that offer quick access to everything from bookmarks to most recently accessed and most frequently visited sites.

These icons are fully customizable in Mozilla Firefox as well. You can click and drag them to any spot you like on your name tab's page. If you're not a fan, you can also go to the grid icon on the upper right side of your browser and erase them entirely.

Something completely new to Mozilla Firefox is Facebook integration. Firefox now supports Facebook's social API so you can have dedicated buttons for Facebook in your browser. Mozilla Firefox supports Facebook's Messenger within Firefox, giving users desktop notifications as well as a persistent friends list and activity feed on the right. Conversations will open up as overlays on top of whatever website you're on so you can multitask while you chat.

Usability

Mozilla Firefox really changed the way people browse the web when it originally burst onto the scene. Today Firefox remains an incredibly powerful and customizable browser, although competition from Google Chrome has given it a definite run for its money.

Conclusion

Mozilla Firefox 20's interface isn't much different from previous versions, but the features it has added certainly make for a nicer, more enjoyable browsing experience overall.

What's new

For full release notes, please visit https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/20.0/releasenotes/

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Chrome's outstanding features, like its download manager, incognito browsing mode and bookmark syncing, already make it a stand out app. In version 20, it adds a more new features, as well some tweaks that make it even more user-friendly.

New features

Being able to search directly from the address bar is one of the great things about Google Chrome. Now Omnibox, Google Chrome's address bar, will offer you various suggestions as you type. Depending on how accurate it thinks its results are, Chrome may even begin to pre-load a chosen page. Popular sites like Facebook and Twitter are now sure to load almost instantaneously.

You'll now also receive warnings when Google Chrome thinks a downloading file that might contain malware or something harmful to your PC. It does this by tracing the download's originating server and comparing it to sites on its blacklist. If you're concerned about privacy when it comes to Google looking at your downloads for potential malware, you can disable this feature within your browser preferences.

Updates and tweaks

Google Chrome introduces several smaller updates designed to improve the user experience. First, Google Chrome has improved page zooming to make it more consistent with other browsers - you can now zoom up to 500%. In addition, Print Preview no longer shows up in its own tab but rather appears in a highly-configurable modal window - this improves your workflow and makes printing even quicker. Google Chrome's History tab has also undergone a redesign. It now allows users to filter out or even remove specific domains you don't want showing up there.

There's also been an update to the V8 JavaScript engine and more than a dozen security fixes. In short, these changes make browsing even quicker - and using the internet even safer.

In addition, version 20 helps with vulnerability greatly, in that it covers patches for quite a few security-related bugs. Google Chrome's latest update will consequently help make your browsing experience even safer.

Chrome extensions

Last, but not least, there are also changes for extensions - not only can you now count on a range of Google Chrome extensions that rivals (and in many cases betters) Firefox's, but those of you with a more technical bent can take advantage of improved extension APIs, so if you've got an idea, it's even easier to make it into an extension yourself.

If you're considering making the switch from old favorites like Firefox or Internet Explorer, we'd wholeheartedly recommend Google Chrome as the browser of the future!

Google Chrome, Google's browser, mixes a clean, minimalist interface with a variety of powerful tools, making it a great browser.

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Overview

Opera 12 keeps the general design and functionality of the highly-praised Opera 11, but adds convenient improved features like themes, web cam access and hardware acceleration. As for the the interface, Opera 12 features a slightly cleaner GUI with a focus on webpages instead of buttons and menus. Overall, Opera 12 isn't a huge change compared to the last version, but it has been improved with some nice new features.

Innovations and speed

The big innovation in the last version of Opera was extensions and while the choice of browser enhancements is still fairly limited, when you install or uninstall add-ons, you don't have to restart your browser. They are also sandboxed, so if one crashes, your browser won't. Opera 12 runs just as quickly as Google Chrome (the developer claims it's even faster) and the rendering engine has been tweaked slightly to offer an even faster browsing experience.

Visual Tabs and Tab Stacking is useful if you often have too many open, and there are now visual mouse gestures. These are well implemented, and accessed by holding the right mouse button which brings up a translucent guide to mouse gestures. This is a great introduction for people who've never used gestures, and hopefully allows for greater use in the future.

There's still an integrated mail client, which continues Opera's move towards doing everything you need in one application. The newest features or improvements of note are themes and web cam access. The most notable improvement has been to Speed Dial which instead of simply giving easy access to your favorite sites, now allows you to embed your Speed Dial with dynamic information - in other words, web apps within Opera. Meanwhile Password Syncing allows you to sync passwords across machines and devices - just sign-up for an account and Opera does the rest. There have also been some HTML5 improvements for developers such as Session History, Navigation and the W3C File API.

Conclusions

Opera 12 is a definite improvement on Opera 11 although the changes aren't revolutionary. However, if you're looking for a new browser, this is probably the most innovative currently on the market and is well worth installing.

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The interface of Internet Explorer 8 hasn't changed that much compared to older versions, except for one small detail; the menu bar is back and shows up by default again. Besides that, everything else is in place: the address bar is again on top of the interface, and Favorites are accessible via a drop-down menu.

As for new features, Internet Explorer 8 includes two main new tools: one is Accelerators (previously known as Activities), and the other is Web Slices. The first one gives you direct access to various online services just by right-clicking anywhere on the web page or on highlighted text. For instance, you can look up a word, map an address or perform a search with those marked words. The main drawback is that all these options use Microsoft's Windows Live services which means that you're stuck with them.

Regarding Internet Explorer's Web Slices, these are a kind of RSS-style tool that tracks changes and updates to selected websites and keeps you informed about them. It comes in really handy for tracking small changes that can't be followed by RSS, without having to visit the site: online auction bids, stock exchange values, weather information and more.

Besides these two tools, Internet Explorer 8 also includes many interesting new features. One of them, the 'Suggested sites' function, recommends new websites you may not know about, based on your browsing history.

Another nice feature is InPrivate Browsing, Internet Explorer's version of the popular Chrome Incognito mode. While InPrivate Browsing is on, the browser won't save data, including cookies, history and temporary Internet files. As for security, Internet Explorer 8 includes the so-called SmartScreen filter, which prevents you from entering fraudulent websites and protects you from online phishing scams.

Internet Explorer 8 is truly a giant step forward, and proves that Microsoft is working hard to offer a more secure, compatible and customizable browser.

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Things have changed a lot since then however and Safari 5 sees some exciting introductions such as a new Reader icon for easier reading in one page, faster page load times and vastly improved HTML5 support. All of the previous features such as tabs on top for easier page management and Cover Flow to flip through your bookmarked sites iTunes style have been retained too.

Features

Meanwhile Cover Flow lets you browse through your bookmarks presenting full page views of the sites as they looked the last time you browsed them. The principle is based on flipping through albums in iTunes. Again, this looks cool although usually, I don't really care what the site looked like the last time I visited it - I just want to get there as quickly as possible. What I do like is the History Search - just type a word and Safari throws up every single page it has cached with that word on - very useful when you can't remember where the hell you saw the name of that person or game.

Other handy features in Safari include Tabs on Top which makes it a little easier to access and open your tabs at the very top of Safari. You can even drag and drop tabs into another Safari window.

Usability

Quality

In addition to these changes, all the standard features in Safari remain. By clicking on the RSS tag in the URL bar, you can get a view of all the posts in a feed, which you can present chronologically and get a detailed or a title view. There will be inevitably some programs and plugins - such as 1Password - that don't work with this new version of Safari but these issues will quickly be ironed out by the developers of respective software.

Conclusion

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Compared to the latest stable version this edition contains subtle modifications that make it worth trying for die-hard Chrome fans. As you expect from Google Chrome, you get a web browser with a sleek, minimalist design.

Even compared with Safari and especially Firefox, the browser has very few buttons. All settings and options to choose your extensions are accessible via icons in the top right.

Please note that this version of Google Chrome is strictly a developer release, so bear in mind that you may occasionally encounter bugs and the developers are very keen to hear feedback on such problems.

The latest developer version of Google Chrome gives you a taste of what's to come from one of the fastest growing browsers out there.

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Mozilla Firefox 3.6 brought a handful of new features to this already excellent web browser.

First of all, the interface in Mozilla Firefox 3 is now much easier to customize. This version offers seamless integration with Personas, Mozilla's theme gallery for Firefox, which lets you apply new Firefox themes to your browser with a single mouse click. What's more, you can try them on the browser before actually applying them, just by hovering your mouse over the theme's name.

Another impressive new feature in Mozilla Firefox 3 is the native support for watching videos in full screen – as long as they've got the HTML5 'video' tag. Simply right click on the video and select the "Full screen" mode to turn the browser into a media player. Also, Mozilla Firefox 3 has released a new online service called Plugin Check, which helps you check for new updates for your plugins – quite handy, especially if you're as addicted to Mozilla Firefox 3 addons as I am!

Regarding efficiency and stability, the new Mozilla Firefox 3 includes the latest version of the Gecko engine and has improved Java performance. These two elements are meant to provide a faster web browsing – which has been its weakest point of late. While I haven't tested the final version long enough, I have to say I've been using the betas and release candidates for a while, and I'm quite happy with the program's response.

In all, the new features included in Mozilla Firefox 3 may not be as many or as spectacular as other releases, but they do provide a better user experience in terms of usability, customization and performance.

Mozilla Firefox 3 continues its steady development and adds interesting new features and improvements in its latest version.

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The first thing you'll notice about Internet Explorer 9 is an overhauled interface. Making the most of the transparent graphical style available in Windows 7 and newer editions of Windows Vista, IE 9 looks sleek, smart and simpler than ever before. Like in Google Chrome, the Address bar and Search box have been merged to create a simpler, more seamless user experience.

Among the new features included in Internet Explorer 9 are better integration with the Windows operating system and a seriously beefed-up security system. IE 9 also lets you 'pin' websites to the Superbar and allows you to bookmark your favorite websites as 'applications' in your OS. As for safety, the new Tracking protection and ActiveX filtering features let you block certain sites from tracking your movements online and switch off ActiveX elements on a per-site basis, respectively. The new Performance Advisor add-on identifies add-ons that are slowing Internet Explorer down (a feature badly needed in Mozilla Firefox).

Internet Explorer 9 also offers improved speed and performance, as well as better compliance with web standards and new technologies. IE 9 features decent support for HTML 5 (the new generation of media-rich websites use this language), and now finishes the Acid 3 test with a near-perfect 95/100. New features like hang recovery and InPrivate Filtering provide Internet Explorer a stabler and more secure web experience than most other browsers.

In all, the latest version of Windows Internet Explorer 9 is faster and prettier than its predecessors - and really throws down the gauntlet to its competitors. Watch out: the browser wars just got exciting again.

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With the official release of Windows 8 around the corner, Mozilla is scrambling to complete its version of Firefox Metro Preview. The interface is completely redesigned and has taken some designed cues from Google Chrome like its rounded tabs instead of Firefox's traditional squared off corners.

The first thing users will notice about this version of Firefox is its Windows 8 Modern UI inspired home page with your most frequently visited sites and bookmarks. The interface is intuitive and feels like it's part of the operating system.

Firefox Metro Preview also features a new tab bar at the top that shows live thumbnails of the sites you have open. This is impressive and goes with the Windows 8 'live tiles' feel. The tabs are also big enough to manipulate by touch without having to be too precise. Firefox Metro Preview feels like much more of a complete product than Google Chrome for the Modern UI.

Firefox Metro Preview's search is also integrated into Windows now so users can quickly bring up the search field by pressing Windows + F. This works for Google results so you get instant suggestions for completing search terms. Bookmarks also get a major overhaul. Bookmarks will no longer be stored in folders but in lists. No bookmark will go unsorted in Firefox Metro Preview!

To enter a URL in Firefox Metro Preview, access the address bar by swiping up from the bottom bezel. If you're using a mouse and keyboard, just right click the mouse. If you're sick of using the Modern UI version, you can use it as a normal desktop application, which will look exactly the same as Firefox 15.

Overall, Firefox Metro Preview is a solid build with many great touch friendly features. Once the bugs are hammered out, it'll be a great browser for Windows 8.

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This very early developer version of Google Chrome gives us a glimpse into the future of a touch-friendly Chrome. To install this version, users will have to go to the developer channel and download Google Chrome from there. Make sure to check the box for "Make Google Chrome my default browser" to enable its Metro interface.

This developer version of Google Chrome for Metro will immediately be familiar. It looks almost identical to the desktop version of Google Chrome but simplifies things with a bigger menu button on the top right. From there, you can access all of the preferences and settings that you would get from the desktop version of Chrome. This is where Google Chrome for Metro begins to show its sloppiness. The settings buttons are bigger, but aren't as touch-friendly as Internet Explorer for Metro.

One of the best features of Google Chrome for Metro is full Adobe Flash support. As with all other variations of Google Chrome, Flash is baked right into the browser so no additional downloads are needed. Internet Explorer for Metro, on the other hand, features a watered-down version of Flash that only works on certain sites.

Google's developers have a long way to go to make Google Chrome for Metro feel like a native application. As it stands, this is a very early port of Chrome that hasn't put much thought into design.

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We'll leave this one up for a while in case advanced users would like to download it for other purposes!

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Maxthon really surprised us here at Softonic. If you are a person who likes lots of options, you should really check it out - the IE-based browser has more buttons, menus and configurations options than Photoshop, and you can really customize it to the max. All aspects in Maxthon can be re-sized, moved or taken away and there are multiple skins, interface styles, and language options.

Maxthon generally opens its configuration options in new tabs, rather than windows. This means they are easy to see and modify, which is just as well, as there are so many of them. These options, including the standard File, View, and Tools types, can be found in the Menu Bar, while there are even more in the lower Status bar. If things are beginning to sound a bit crowded, you can disable most, leaving the whole Maxthon interface much cleaner.

It would take a very long time to detail all of Maxthon's options, so suffice to say that as well as the standard ones (tab behavior, display, encoding), there are a multitude of other features, from content control to image and script disabling, an in-built ad-blocker, auto form-filler and advanced screenshot function.
In fact, some of the options are quite complex, and you might want to take a look at the user manual before jumping straight in.

If you like a simple browsing experience, or are a big fan of your Firefox add-ons, Maxthon probably isn't for you (although there are a good selection of Maxthon add-ons).

If you are an Internet Explorer user who wants more options, however, or are just interested in life beyond Mozilla, give Maxthon a try. You might be as surprised as I was.

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If you manage systems in an organization, you'll understand the importance of being able to control usage and manage policies. That's where Google Chrome for Business comes in - for your users, Google Chrome will work exactly as normal, while you or the systems administrator will be able to configure policies, manage updates, install offline and more. Even people who have already installed Chrome themselves will be able to continue to use the same application.

The only readily visible difference, in fact, is that instead of a normal .exe download, Google Chrome for Business comes as an .msi installer that contains the whole program, allowing you to install offline or to a network.

Among Google Chrome for Business' other advantages include the ability to control updates and set group policies. This is done via policy templates and, apart from being easy to manage, safeguards the security of your network. Google Chrome for Business also facilitates the corporate and group use of Google Docs, which is great if you're planning on rolling them out to an office.

It goes without saying that Google Chrome for Business has a very well-documented and active user community, as well as ample help from Google itself, ranging from a complete FAQ to even offering webinars on the process for you to attend.

If you use or are thinking of using Google Chrome in a business context, Google Chrome for Business is essential.

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The biggest addition to the latest Google Chrome (Beta) is the inclusion of speech recognition for applications. The browser includes a new Web Speech API, which provides developers tools to integrate speech recognition within their web apps. There is some controversy over the security of such an API as apps will have permission to record and send audio.

Google Chrome (Beta) also adds some security enhancements, most importantly for extensions. Extensions that don't explicitly ask for permissions will be blocked automatically. This is great and will force extension developers to be more transparent.

If you want to check out what's on the horizon for Chrome, download and try the Google Chrome (Beta).

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Firefox Beta 19 adds a built-in PDF viewer so you don't have to rely on a plug-in. The other big update is that Firefox will offer to reset the URL bar for the default search provider if a third-party program changed it.

Smaller improvements include faster startup performance so the browser should open quicker. Developers also gained new features with the debugger supporting pausing on exceptions, the remote web console being able to connect to Firefox on Android or the Firefox OS, and a browser debugger add-on.

Firefox Beta didn't add many major features, but continues the steady development of the browser.

For the stable version Firefox, click here.

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Based on Internet Explorer's engine, Avant Browser offers secure support for most pages you visit. It's also fully compatible with IE9.

This browser is conveniently ad-free. It also has tabbed browsing, a feature internet users have come to expect in recent years due to its practicality and convenience. Another useful option offered is the ability to disable all kinds of items such as ActiveX, scripts and Java applets.

Avant Browser can also disable sounds imbedded on websites, flash animation, images and videos. It's also quite fast when it comes to loading pages.

Avant Browser is good alternative if you're looking to try something new but want the familiar feel of Internet Explorer.

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The first thing you'll notice about Internet Explorer 9 is an overhauled interface. Making the most of the transparent graphical style available in Windows 7 and newer editions of Windows Vista, IE 9 looks sleek, smart and simpler than ever before. Like in Google Chrome, the Address bar and Search box have been merged to create a simpler, more seamless user experience.

Among the new features included in Internet Explorer 9 are better integration with the Windows operating system and a seriously beefed-up security system. IE 9 also lets you 'pin' websites to the Superbar and allows you to bookmark your favorite websites as 'applications' in your OS. The new Performance Advisor add-on identifies add-ons that are slowing Internet Explorer down (a feature badly needed in Mozilla Firefox).

Internet Explorer 9 also offers improved speed and performance, as well as better compliance with web standards and new technologies. IE 9 features decent support for HTML 5 (the new generation of media-rich websites use this language), and now finishes the Acid 3 test with a near-perfect 95/100. New features like hang recovery and InPrivate Filtering provide Internet Explorer a stabler and more secure web experience than most other browsers.

In all, the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 is faster and prettier than its predecessors - and really throws down the gauntlet to its competitors. Watch out: the browser wars just got exciting again.

Download Internet Explorer 9.0.8112.16421 Windows 7 64-bit in Softonic