When it comes to spending time on the internet (and believe me, I spend a lot of time online), finding a web browser is a crucial tool for my web surfing, online research and overall online entertainment. I find myself downloading “the latest and greatest” web browser, only to find myself uninstalling it because I find that this new, fancy browser still isn’t meeting my needs. Granted though, there are times that my browser needs are ethereal.

Internet Explorer (IE) was my browser of choice since I started working with PCs and it was Safari for my Mac. But IE started “not responding,” and I sent off on the hunt for a new browser.

I’d heard rave reviews about Google Chrome. I love Google Chrome’s Thumbnail View feature, which shows you your most visited websites as thumbnails when you open a new tab within the browser. But, for some reason, which has eluded my technological skills, I cannot get it to work with my Typepad-hosted website. Google Chrome will take me to my homepage, but once there it refuses to click to any other of my pages. So I am frustrated.

Now my modus operandi was to operate IE for various Typepad elements but Google Chrome for all others. Tedious? You bet. While I may still be on the search for the best browser for my particular needs, here are some thoughts on the available web browsers:

Internet Explorer (the newest version – 9.0 – was launched mid-March) has been the most popular web browser among Windows PC users. Even though there’s competition, IE is continues to dominate the market. And why not, it’s pre-installed with every Microsoft Windows operating system, so it’s sure to be the most used.

Opera is famous for use on smartphones and is one of the best browsers for Android phones. It’s not all that common on computers even though it boasts fast speeds, rarely crashes and is rarely the target for viruses. Download it at www.opera.com.

Mozilla Firefox is believed to be the fastest browser out there and considered the best for Macs. It has various themes from which to choose and has easy navigation tabs.  Mozilla Firefox just released it’s latest version 4.0 for Windows at press time. Download Firefox at: www.mozilla.com.

Google Chrome is the newcomer to the browser game, and is quickly becomming a major player. If you’re looking for laser-fast speed webpage uploads, Chrome is likely for you. As I mentioned before cool features include webpage thumbnails for fast access to your favorite websites, and offers a bookmark sync manager – which syncs your bookmarks on all of your computers running the Chrome browser. Google Chrome is considered the best on the market right now, and has lots of free browser add-ons you can download from the Chrome Web Store (https://chrome.google.com/webstore). Download Google Chrome at: www.google.com/chrome.

As with anything on the internet and on your computer, so much of it is based on personal preference. I know, even though I’ve only been using Google Chrome for the past few weeks, it is my browser of choice – and would be my only browser – if I could get it to play nice with Typepad. But that’s my only gripe so far, and probably just very specific to my computer situation.

What’s your favorite browser? I’d love to know because I’d certainly like to have only one installed.  Who knows, though maybe I will simply download IE9 and give it a shot!