Alternative Web Browser reviews

We all know about the likes of FireFox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari and now Chrome, but did you know there are a lot more browsers out there worth a look?

Well I have decided to take a look into the browser world and see if I can find some gems that most normal users might not know about.

I decided to stay away from the normal alternative browser like:

Flock (Social version of FireFox. i.e. MySpace, facebook, Twitter, Bebo)
Safari (Mac browser ported)
FireFox PortableOpera Portable
Internet Explorer Standalone
SeaMonkey
Netscape

I may do some reviews for these at a later date. if I do I shall update this with links

I just thought that these are big names and there are hundreds of reviews for them anyway. I

may in the future do some reviews for PDA Browsers as I have one and found it a pain to find a good one (I did stick with Opera for anyone wondering).

Note: All browsers will be for WindowsXP (I can not say for sure that they work for Vista as I do not use it)

All the browsers I review I have tested and are the latest versions on offer. The date they are tested are from: 15th September 2008 - 20th September 2008/ I thought it would be a good idea to state the date as versions change so quickly and this will be outdated very quickly.

GreenBrowser Review

Version tested: 4.7.0902Website

Website info: GreenBrowser is free to download and use. If you think our software are good! It’s welcome for you to donate. We will provide best support for donative user and make the software better! Thanks for your support!

This is a very full featured browser. It has many plug-ins that I might use with FireFox already built in and ready to use.

One feature I really liked that came with it was the adkiller and easy use of stopping Images and scripts already built in.

It has a FireFox feel to it, but from my personal use I found it slower at rendering web-pages.

This browser just had a feeling that it has too many options and overpowers the average user. It has so many plug-ins already pre-installed that it took me a few hours to just use them all and find out what some actually do.

I also found some annoying things with this browser. It has a floating button that will be displayed when you start GreenBrowser. You can move it anywhere you want but it will always be on top of whatever you have running. As soon as you click this the browser will popup for you to use.
This I do think would be very handy for web designers who wish to test new code and refresh without trying to find the browser.
For the average user this would be on no use… I think it should have been a option that had to be selected on install as it is very annoying until it is turned off.

My Score: 5/10

K-Meleon Review

Version tested 1.5.0 (2008-08-08)
Website

Website info:
K-Meleon is an extremely fast, customizable, lightweight web browser for the Win32 (Windows) platform based on the Gecko layout engine (the rendering engine ofMozilla). K-Meleon is free, open source software released under the GNU General Public License.

K-Meleon is on hell of a fast browser. It loads almost instantly upon opening it. K-Meleon offers most of the basic browser features you would expect from a big browser, it also has a few that you would normaly download as plug-ins pre-installed.

The big selling point for this browser is how fast it loads. There is even a symbiotic loader to further reduce start time for older, slower PCs.

It also supports macros so you can set it up to do a whole range of things that normally could take awhile to do. It comes with many common macros already to use.

Downsides… I cant really think of any downsides to this browser. It has no real annoyances. The only thing I would say was a bit annoying was it has no “Open all in tabs” button in the bookmarks. If it has this then it would be a perfect Entrecard browser. I am sure that this could be fixed in macros and could be a powerful tool for this type of use.

My Score: 7/10

(High score mainly for fast loading times)

Sleipnir Review

Version: 2.82
Website

Website info:
Sleipnir is designed to be a highly customizable browser that you can configure to suit your individual needs. With Sleipnir, you can create your ideal browser by changing the design, skin, and visual appearance.

You can also add custom functionality to Sleipnir with a wide range of plugins and user scripts. Users love Seipnir for it’s unique blend of high-performance and customizability!

Sleipnir is a big fish in Japan and after just using it for one day I can see why! It is so fast at booting and rendering.  Sleipnir is very much like FireFox in respects to how much you can customise it. It does not have the wide range of plug-ins that FireFox has… but it does come with many of the common once you would expect to download with FireFox.

As this is a Japanese made software you have to expect that the community may not reliance everything at the same speed for us English speakers… But don’t let that put you off! if you did you would be losing out on the dark horse of the browser world.

The thing I loved about this browser was the old fuzzy feeling I got from back in the beta testing days of FireFox. It is something new… Something that not everyone is using… And it does so much that the big dogs of the browser world cant do.

This browser is the only browser that has made me think about switching from my Firefox baby.

My Score: 9/10

SpaceTime Review

Version: 1.0
Website

Website info:
Just choose “eBay search” from the drop down menu in SpaceTime™, type in yoursearch term and go! SpaceTime™ displays all of your eBay search results in an easy to view elegant 3D arrangement. The days of mining through pages and pages of tiny thumb-nails in an effort to find the item you are looking for are over. Because SpaceTime™ has unlimited space, you can display hundreds of items at once to find exactly what you are looking for.

This browser is very different in so many ways. I am not going to do a full review as it would be unfair. The reason it would be unfair is this browser is designed for higher end computers than my Laptop can offer. I did have some fun with this browser though… I just would never use it as it does so many things I would never ever use every day!

Anyway, for a good insight into what this browser offers go to the website and watch the video! It really is a new way of browsing

Here are a list of other 3D Browsers that I never tested.
3B
uBrowser
Browse3D

My Score: Not fully tested

Maxthon Review

Version: 2.1.4.443
Website

Website info:
Maxthon Browser is a powerful tabbed browser built for all users. Besides basic browsing functionality, Maxthon Browser provides a rich set of features to improve your surfing experience.

Maxthon has a very nice and clean interface. In most respects it is a super browser and has no big annoyances.

It has a wide range of plug-ins and templates, it maximises space by using the top bar for the main menu (Like Chrome does). It comes with a wide range of options you would expect if your a FireFox user.

So why don’t I like this browser like I liked Sleipnir? Well it just does not break into any new ground… Why would I just switch from FireFox to this browser when there is no big feature that I cant get from FireFox…

The only big thing I can find in Maxthon apart from the very nice clean look is the load time. It boots and loads web-pages very very fast when you compare it to FireFox 3. This would be the only reason I would even think of using it… But when you think of all the Plug-ins FireFox offers it is just not enough for me.

Maxthon does offer thousands of plug-ins…The only problem is not many of them are in English. it also offers hundreds of skins and filters (Again not all are in English).

Overall: Maxthon  is a very good browser! If I could take some things from this browser and add it to FireFox we would have a perfect browser.
Maxthon has a very good clean look, so for some people this may be a good selling point. if you are after a good secure, sexy look then look at this browser! You wont regret it.

My Score: 7/10

SlimBrowser Review

Version: 4.10 Build 015
Website

Website info:
SlimBrowser is a tabbed multiple-site browser. It incorporates a large collection of powerful features like built-in popup killer, skinned window frame, form filler, site group, quick-search, auto login, hidden sites, built-in commands and scripting, online translation, script error suppression, blacklist / whitelist filtering, URL Alias. It brings you convenient and comfortable browsing.

I was really hoping this browser would shine as its meant to be a quick browser (My faves).

Once you install this browser you are met with a 1990s style themes and about 5 menus that take up around 30% of your screen (Mine anyway).

I found this browser annoying, awful to look at, and useless. I don’t think I need to add much more as I only gave this a hour of testing before I just had to remove it.

My Score: 2/10

What I learn’t

I learnt that we have a big range of very good browsers that we are not taking advantage of. These days your either a FireFox user. or a Opera user (I don’t count Internet Explorer as most people who use it do not even know what a browser is… and if they did they would switch). I have only used FireFox the past few years and before that I used Opera… I now use FireFox 1.5 as y basic browser and V3 for my normal browsing habits.

We also have Google Chrome which has crashed in on the scene. It is a super browser and is a browser I am using more and more each day. With testing these browsers I have seen that Google must have taken from of the basic ideas from some of these. I am sure once it is out of BETA we will see big things from Chrome!

I am also a Linux user and love to boot up the VERY SMALL Dillo browser. This offers very basic features but is super for small LiveCD OS’s like DamnSmallLinux and PuppyLinux, I also find I use FireFox 1.5 for this also.

My big find here was Sleipnir which I am still using and testing. It is a great browser which I find new things to do and tweak every day of use. if you have not tested it make sure you do!

Update: Google have confirmed Plugins and scripts
http://lifehacker.com/5052447/google-chrome-will-support-add+ons-user-scripts

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Posted by : Lee Doyle
Posted on : Sep 20 2008
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Tags: alias, away, bebo, best, better, browser, browser reviews, browsers, button, buttons, click, code, compare, compared, create, damnsmalllinux, darkness, day, design, difference, dog, download, drop, dropped, dropping, easy, ending, entrecard, errors, ever, explorer, facebook, Features, feelings, firefox, fish, floating, for, free, future, generate, get, google, great, greenbrowser, group, hell, hope, how, image, images, info, instalation, installing, Internet, items, k-meleon, lap links, linux, list, lists, login, look, love, MAC, maxthon. slimbrowser, my netscape, netscape, new, News, nice, opera, options, over, pain, past, personal, personality, plugin, plugins, portable browser, power, problem, problems, publicity, real, review, run, s, say, seamonkey, site, sleipnir, social, space, spacetime, spacetime browser, style, taken, template, thanks, themes, thing, thoughts, time, tools, top, translate, twitter, update, used, user, version, video, videos, vista, watches, Website, which, why, win, work, you
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5 Responses to “Alternative Web Browser reviews”

1. Crista Says:
   September 21st, 2008 at 1:29 am

   Wow, I had no idea that there were that many browsers! I still stick to my firefox, I think its better than IE. I may try out the others you have recommended in the future.

   Reply - Quote
2. Lee Doyle Says:
   September 21st, 2008 at 1:37 am

   @Crista -
   Firefox is a safe bet The big thing with Firefox is the plugins… Without plugins and the OS community it would just be another browser.

   Thanks for the comment

   Reply - Quote
   Comment Tags: browser, browsers, firefox
3. Richard McLaughlin Says:
   September 21st, 2008 at 9:10 am

   I use Chrome for almost everything now, but FF with I go out with the intention of using Stumbleupon (just stumbled this post). Chrome has few widgets that go with it, but it is by far the fastest browser on the market and it does not crash.

   On my PC I have at least IE8, Safari, Flock, Opera, Firefox and Chrome. Why so many? I like to test the websites I develop to make sure what works in F also works in IE (which is often not the case).

   Reply - Quote
4. Lee Doyle Says:
   September 21st, 2008 at 9:21 am

   @Rich
   If Chrome could have a simple plugin system that would not put much strain on it it could really be a browser killer. Right now I am just stuck with 2 browsers which sucks.

   All I need is a good plugin like Adblock Plus, a nice Stumble plugin (Basic unlike the FF one) and I would dump Firefox and not look back.

   I know its only in BETA… but I just wish I could have this open and no other browser.

   I also use other browsers for testing (Yes I know my Search bar does not display right in all browsers :)) but I find the IE Tab plugin for FF helps out loads with keeping my startbar clear

   Thanks for the comment and Stumble

   Reply - Quote
5. Elle Says:
   September 23rd, 2008 at 6:36 pm

   Hmm I think I might try out some of the others also. Right now I use mainly FF and Opera, but will definitely try some more.

   Reply - Quote

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