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20th September 2008/ I thought it would be a good idea to state the date as versions change so quickly and this will be outdated very quickly.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) Read more »

OMGZ HARRY POTTER

I was just having a browse around Amazon and noticed a BIG banner advertising The Tales of Beedle the Bard! The last I read it would be sold at aution to a sole owner… So I guess JK has seen how many fans she would annoy and decided to sell it.

She has given two versions of the book… One of which you can ONLY buy at Amazon! It looks amazing and will surely be worth a bit in the future (Ill be buying one for sure)

Both versions have all five fairy tales from the original The Tales of Beedle the Bard  by J.K. Rowling.

This The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Collector’s Edition (Offered Exclusively by Amazon) comes with loads of extras like the bag with JKs name on and a big book style box to keep your collectors version inside. I do not know if id dare to read this one… So i think ill buy myself a £4 version along with it

Of the best things about this version is that £20 GBP per unit from the sale of the Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk will be donated to The Children’s Voice Campaign.

They are also selling aThe Tales of Beedle the Bard, Standard Edition that is being sold much more cheaper! I think this is what will be sold in most stores.

I am sure these books will add yet more amazing back story for the Harry Potter fans (Like myself). It is what everyone has been waiting for… But what makes it even better that that JK is donating so much to The Children’s Voice Campaign.

I would normally say that I hope this will do well… But we all know it will be #1 and get everyone reading again
I just hope we see more treats like this in the future Read more »