At Tradesight, we like to keep our subscribers updated from time to time on major technology upgrades. While browsers might not sound like an important component from a trading perspective, let’s face it, we all use them. Given the fact that the big three (Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome) have pushed out big updates in the last week or two, I thought I’d take a moment to highlight them.
Keep in mind that you can easily install and uninstall and run Firefox and Chrome separately. If you don’t like them, just don’t use them, or uninstall. That might not be true for Microsoft’s IE, which is much more integrated into your computer experience.
Internet Explorer 9. You can download it here. Microsoft has done a lot to its latest release to compete with the likes of Chrome and Firefox. The user interface is fast and scaled down. The menus are mostly gone. You can get everything done from the URL line or from a couple of key buttons for settings. Load times are much faster. And, to compete with the other two, Microsoft now offers a much more open system for plug-ins that should encourage users to make the product better and add features that Microsoft doesn’t build in. If you have IE on your machine, you should upgrade. It won’t take long and it is definitely worth your time. If you have a 64-bit computer and 64-bit version of Windows running, a 64-bit version of IE 9  will show you some significant speed enhancements.
Who is it primarily for? People that have computers and browse and don’t want to view a browser as anything more than that. Upgrade to 9, don’t stay on an older version.
Mozilla Firefox 4. You can download it here. Firefox was written as an open-source community project as competition to Internet Explorer. By version 2, it was enticing people that wanted a faster browser than IE 7.0 was offering at the time. By version 3, it had taken a considerable amount of market share from IE. The big secret to the success of Firefox, beyond some terrific social media marketing, has always been it’s plug-in/add-on ability. Just about anyone can write a plug-in that does something in the browser (weather tracking, themes, spell checks, you name it); INSERT INTO `wp_posts` (`ID`, `post_author`, `post_date`, `post_date_gmt`, `post_content`, `post_title`, `post_category`, `post_excerpt`, `post_status`, `comment_status`, `ping_status`, `post_password`, `post_name`, `to_ping`, `pinged`, `post_modified`, `post_modified_gmt`, `post_content_filtered`, `post_parent`, `guid`, `menu_order`, `post_type`, `post_mime_type`, `comment_count`) VALUES and if you want it, you download it and add it to the browser. It has always been a fast browser, but the new 4.0 increases speed even more. It’s easy to download and install and get started. Strangely, while the other browsers are dropping the menu systems that traditionally come with software, Firefox just added a main drop down menu with several submenus.
Who is it primarily for? iPhone and iPad users that have PCs will typically want Firefox for two reasons: 1) They have Microsoft and 2) They hate Google. The other nice thing about Firefox is that there are now Mobile versions of it for various phones and tablet apps, and you can sync your bookmarks via the cloud to all devices with 4.0.
Chrome 10, Build 648.151. You can download it here. Like just about everything Google offers, the webpage where you download it is minimalist and boring, but the app itself is outstanding. Even leaner and meaner than Firefox, Chrome has really come into its own in the last few releases. The Favorites/Bookmarks system is the best of the browsers, and it loads everything quickly. The big selling point on Chrome is the outstanding amount of plug-in content that goes beyond just “plugs” and “add-ons” but actually allows you to run freeform applications from the browser. While Chrome is strangely not yet available as a built-in browser for Android phones or Android Honeycomb tablets such as the Motorola Xoom, you have to think it’s coming. In the meantime, there is an application that you can use on those devices to sync your bookmarks to the phone/tablet and then touch to run the page in the default browser.
Who is it primarily for? Anyone that wants a browser that can give you diverse applications that sync over multiple devices for daily tasking and organization, plus anyone using Android-based phones or tablets.
Which is best? Hard to say. It depends on your needs as a user. If you just want to browse the web, any of them will do and IE 9.0 is certainly attractive. If you want to move away from hard software applications like Outlook and Word and move to more cloud-based applications, Chrome is the one. If you just want a highly customizable tight browser offering, Firefox. Or, install them all and you might find different benefits and uses from each, as I do.
In addition, click on these respective links to have a look at some of the applications that I find extremely useful, especially connecting your phone/tablet (Android) to each other or to your computer: Springpad, Dropbox, Evernote.
Takes the work out of staying organized once you get used to them.
By rating each of these about the same, we hope to keep all of our corporate sponsors happy. We’d even like to throw in a shout out to Apple for providing us with a stock that is easy to trade and has paid us so well over the last four years.