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.

Download Google Chrome 27.0.1453.110 in Softonic

Features

These days, it's an app that attempts to be all things to all people - play DVDs, organize music, catalog photos, convert video, interact with social networking sites, browse internet multimedia....there's no end to what RealPlayer offers to its users. Even so, it's not an out-and-out success...

Usability

For a start, installation of RealPlayer is annoying - it takes a while, requires lots of "nexts" and tries to install and enable several features that users don't really need. Finally, when it starts, you're offered a chance to upgrade to paid versions of RealPlayer before you have to register yourself with Real Networks. If all this messing around doesn't appeal, check out a slimline app like UMPlayer.

When you're up and running, RealPlayer features a wide interface where you will notice ads and videos recommended by Real Networks. This looks cluttered and messy, and it's hard to know what the app actually offers. In reality, RealPlayer is ideal for playing and sharing video with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter and it works easily with BlackBerry, iPod, iPhone and other game systems. The new video converter allows you to copy online video to your iPod, Xbox, PS3 and other devices. Unfortunately, you can't rip DVDs with RealPlayer, although this is available as a feature if you upgrade to RealPlayer Plus.

Most recently, RealPlayer has been updated with far better mobile and social networking integration. You can now copy your favorite videos to an iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and dozens of other popular devices automatically. Downloading internet videos is faster, and for those of you with something to hide, RealPlayer offers a new Private folder. Social media has also been bumped up, with direct access to Facebook videos and usefully, a built-in feature to transfer videos to your mobile devices.

Quality

That said, RealPlayer isn't bad at all. It's comparable to Windows Media Player 12 as they both have some impressive ways of organizing your music. For me, the best feature is the CD burner which is something I've used from the early days of RealPlayer. The sheer quality of some of the media only available in Real formats makes RealPlayer an essential item in the toolkit of any fan of internet video and audio.

Conclusion

There's no shortage of media players theses days, and RealPlayer is by no means a bad option. It offers lots of features, good options and is a high-quality player that will do justice to your media. The only problem is that despite its modern features, it feels like a bit of a dinosaur. It's heavy and slow, looks chunky and takes an age to respond to clicks, and for many people - especially those who have experience of lighter options - it's just not the most comfortable player.

RealPlayer is a media player that, although powerful, has suffered from serious feature-creep over the years.

Download RealPlayer 16.0.2.232 in Softonic

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/

Download Mozilla Firefox 21 in Softonic

It was inspired by Adblock Plus for Firefox and features many of the same tools for blocking ads. However, this project has nothing to do with the latter. Adblock is incredibly powerful and blocks just about everything including pre-video ads in YouTube. When it's blocking ads, you'll notice the Adblock logo glow red in your Chrome taskbar.

There are filter lists that you can add or delete sites from within the add-ons panel. It's important to filter sites that you do need Flash pop-ups to work on (such as Grooveshark) for example, in order for applications to work properly while Adblock is working.

Adblock is a very powerful ad blocking tool that may make your pages look a bit empty, but is certainly effective.

Download Adblock 2.5.54 per Google Chrome in Softonic

Advertisers see a lot of information about your interests based on what's available publicly in social spaces like Facebook. If you think your information is secure, think again. Use Privacyfix to see just what's available for public viewing by advertisers.

Privacyfix is easy to install, and will immediately show you what bits of your information are viewable by third party advertisers, as well as let you tweak settings accordingly. It immediately checks accounts you're already logged into on Chrome. For more options, it will prompt you to log into your other various accounts.

Privacyfix can check Facebook (plus the various apps you have installed) and Google, as well as websites you frequently visit. By using a convenient web-based interface, you can toggle between options in the upper bar, then pick and choose what settings to fix in a righthand column below.

Generally, Privacyfix will send you into a new tab to change Facebook settings, and some users might notice a few bugs that need working out with the add-on. Most specifically, the add-on seems to confuse the custom post option on Facebook with the public posting option.

If you're concerned about your information's security online, Privacyfix is a great way to monitor and tweak it.

Download Privacyfix (for Chrome) 2.2.7 in Softonic

Wajam take's Google's idea of Google Search, plus Your World and takes it many steps further. While Google only serves up results from Google+, Wajam will serve you results from Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ all in one place. Your results will also be served to you when using many different sites including Amazon, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yelp.

You will find Wajam pulls data from all your social networks at the top and side of your search results page. It pulls video, photos, and shared links. You can also browse all of your social network content from Wajam's website, if you are specifically looking for something from your social networks. When you click out from Wajam's site, you will be taken to your link with a Wajam bar at the top of the page for easy sharing.

In use, we found Wajam's search results to be a bit hit or miss. For some keywords, Wajam provided us with great search results, while other keywords gave us results that were irrelevant to our search. Wajam is a young company and service so it makes sense that their algorithm needs to evolve a bit.

One final note is that Wajam enables their own ads by default to improve their search results and to make money, of course. You can choose to disable ads in the options.

Overall, Wajam is a great way to get personalized results for your searches but its algorithm could use some polish.

Download Wajam 1.40.0.0 in Softonic

Built on the open source Chromium project, RockMelt is unusual for a browser in that you have to log in to use it properly. It looks like Google Chrome with two slim sidebars. On the left is a Facebook bar with all your online friends, and on the right a notifications bar, that houses pop-ups for your Facebook wall, Twitter feed plus any RSS feeds you want. You cannot add email at the moment.

Clicking the Facebook or Twitter button opens a neat window for the appropriate feed. You can disconnect these window, and float them anywhere on your desktop. The same is true of chats on the left sidebar. Next to the address bar RockMelt has a Share button, allowing you to quickly post interesting links to Facebook or Twitter.

If you're a heavy Twitter and Facebook user, RockMelt will really suit you. It's fast, very well thought-out and the social integration is better than anything else available. It may be in Beta, but RockMelt looks and feels like a finished product already.

RockMelt is a genuinely excellent social browser, building on the already great Chrome to make a uniquely attractive and useful application. Essential.

Download RockMelt 0.16.91.371 in Softonic

The interface in CoolNovo is identical to Google Chrome, with the new features being mainly under the hood: close tabs by double clicking on them, browse the web with mouse gestures, open links by dragging and dropping them, open Internet Explorer tabs and have download managers embedded into the browser's context menu.

The new tools in CoolNovo certainly make web browsing more comfortable, but they also lack proper configuration options. Mouse gestures, for example, can't be tweaked at all.

CoolNovo is a web browser based on Google Chrome's engine with some handy extra features that make it even easier to use.

Download CoolNovo (formerly ChromePlus) 2.0.2.26 in Softonic

When you are surfing the web, you’ll know how irritating ads can be. They flash, blink and generally get in the way. If you’re really unlucky, they can even be dangerous. Adblock Plus removes ads from the pages you are viewing, leaving a clean, peaceful white space in their wake.

Adblock Plus works using filters. If certain elements are present on a page, the extension filters them out. There are several ready-made filters available, and you can choose however many you want from Adblock Plus’ settings menu. If you are a little more technically-able, you’ll also be able to create your own filters, or mark previously-unfiltered items by right-clicking on them and choosing Block Element.

Under Adblock Plus’ settings options you’ll also be able to add certain websites to whitelists (to exempt them from blocking) and toggle a few other options. You’ll also see the Adblock Plus icon in the address bar, and by clicking it you’ll be able to enable and disable Adblock Plus in a single click.

If you’re bothered by ads while on the internet, try Adblock Plus. You won’t regret it.

Download Adblock Plus 1.3.4 For Google Chrome in Softonic

Google Chrome Portable 5 is the latest addition to Google Chrome’s stable, after months of beta testing. Besides the features we already knew from previous versions, such as the download manager, support for extensions and incognito browsing mode, the browser has included great new functions based on user feedback.

To begin with, the syncing feature in Google Chrome Portable is more powerful than ever. Now you can synchronize not only bookmarks across different computers, but also browser preferences – including homepage, web content settings and themes.

The download manager and extension manager in Google Chrome Portable have also been improved. The first one features an interface overhaul powered by HTML5, while the last one now lets you enable each extension to work in incognito mode. Speaking of HTML5, Google Chrome Portable also includes new functionality based on the technology, like support for geolocation APIs and file drag-and-drop. This means that you'll be able to find your location on Google Maps or drag-and-drop attached files onto Gmail messages, for example.

Google Chrome Portable maintains the same impressive usability and ease of use. With zero learning curve, you immediately feel in your element and there's no need to start testing new shortcuts or reading the documentation. So if you're considering making the switch from old favorites like Firefox Portable or Internet Explorer, Google Chrome Portable is definitely an excellent choice for a new web browser.

Google Chrome Portable - all the benefits of Google's star browser, plus the added benefit of portability.

Download Google Chrome Portable 13.0.782.112 in Softonic

To begin with, Social Plus! lets you format the text in your wall updates by using bold, italics, underline and color. Also, from now on you’ll be able to rate your friends’ updates with stars à la iTunes, and even mark them with a brand-new "I don’t like" button.

There are many other new options, settings and improvements added by Social Plus!, such as draggable chat window, new smileys, the ability to preview photos just by hovering your mouse on them and a huge collection of skins – though to be honest, most of them are just simple changes to Facebook’s color scheme.

All the options in Social Plus! are easily configurable via a new menu, on the top right corner of your Facebook homepage. Bear in mind though that most of these functions are only visible to other Social Plus! users, so go ahead and invite your friends to use it too!

Social Plus! is a handy Google Chrome extension that adds many new features and improvements to Facebook. If you love Facebook, this is a total must-have!

Download Social Plus! 2.5.4 for Google Chrome in Softonic

Personas for Firefox is a special extension that improves theme management for Firefox and makes it easier.

So far, applying a new theme to your favorite web browser implies searching for it on Google, downloading the correspondent file to your PC, installing it on Firefox and then restarting the browser in order to see the results. Personas makes this whole process much simpler: just install the extension and you'll see a tiny button on the lower left corner of your browser window. Then, every time you want to apply a new theme to Firefox, simply click on this button and select it from the context menu.

Personas for Firefox currently includes about fifty themes, but chances are there'll be more in the near future, especially if we take into account that this extension also makes theme designing and updating much easier. I guess we'll have to wait patiently as you can't add any new themes to the menu, but use only the ones that come shipped with the extension.

The included themes are classified into several categories (Firefox, Holidays, Nature, Scenery, Sports and others) for a more convenient browsing. Though some of them make menu bars really hard to read, many others give a nice touch of color to the browser window. Also, bear in mind that the themes only change the main window's appearance – icons and menus remain the same.

Despite the limitations of a first version, Personas for Firefox is a great extension to change your browser's appearance in just two clicks.

Download Personas Plus for Firefox 1.6.1 in Softonic