So I was checking out the statistics for this site and there was one particular statistic that I found disturbing… Of the visitors that frequent this site, 78% of you are using Internet Explorer. Why is that disturbing? Because there are better ways to browse the Internet, that’s why! There are lots of reasons Internet Explorer should no longer be the browser of choice, not the least of which involves more security holes in it than you can shake a mouse at. Rather than re-hash all of the reasons to switch from Internet Explorer here, I’m going to provide a link to a site that will explain it all. Browse Happy is a site dedicated to alerting people to the potential danger from continued use of Internet Explorer as their main browser, giving testimonials, examples as well as providing links to alternative browsers. I say “main browser” because, unfortunately, it’s not yet proven feasible to completely abandon Internet Explorer. There are the occasional websites that you may run across that rely on Internet Explorer to provide some sort of functionality that other browsers do not provide (usually because it involves unsafe technologies like ActiveX). If you need to browse a site like that, by all means fire up Internet Explorer and knock yourself out. Just close it and switch back to a better browser when you’re done with that site.

Since Browse Happy has taken care of the “why switch?”, I’ll give my thoughts on “what to switch to.” The Riley household has adopted Firefox as its browser of choice. I’ve been using Firefox for the majority of my web browsing for quite some time now, since it was just knee-high to a grasshopper, but in the recent months we’ve made that our default browser at home and haven’t looked back. We still occasionally open up Internet Explorer from time to time, but it’s rare. Another browser that I’ve started using more often lately is Flock, which is based on Firefox but has some added features that make it easier to use with some of the social networking services such as Flickr (which I use to share photos),del.icio.us (which I use to share links) and so on.

In summary, I’m hoping that the next time I check up on the stats for this site I see less Internet Explorer usage and more happy browsing… I’ll report back in a month or so and let you all know how you’re doing… Oh, and for the love of all things good and holy, please use a screen resolution higher than 800×600…

Posted in Rants
Tags: , , ,
Related Entries:

  • No Related Posts