I use a Macintosh. I use Internet Explorer. Apparently that combination is so rare that we could all get together for a nice steak dinner at Outback.
Aside from silly lingering hatred of all things PC-originating, why should I stop using IE? Why is Safari so superior? Or, Netscape or any of the others?
What is your search engine of choice, what browser pleases you the most and why? This isn’t just limited to Mac users of course- I have my pick and chose of just about all of the browsers, and a couple that are only Mac-based.
First off, for the record – windows XP, Internet Explorer, Google.
And… I have to say I’m confused because most of the rest of your post doesn’t have much to do with search engines. A search engine is (usually) a website that you can use to punch in an internet search, and it has no particular connection with the web browser that you’re using. Google, yahoo search, msn search, jeeves, dogpile, altavista… I think hotbot was a search engine too, though I’m not sure if it, and a few of the others, are still around.
IE has been end-of-lifed for the Mac platform, it’s not in development anymore. It’s also (for most people) slower in rendering pages than other browsers. I still have IE on my Mac (at work and at home) for the rare page that might not work correctly for other browsers. The main browser I use is Safari, I use Firefox occasionally as well.
Since Safari has Google searches built into the address bar, that’s the search engine I use most.
I use Firefox on my mac, it loads the page the fastest, javascript is fully supported, as is css - so pages look almost exactly the same as they do to PC users, IE for Mac has been abandonded by microsoft, and more or less is like using a 5 year old browser - many pages just don’t work.
Plus in firefox - I have the user agent switcher extension incase some dolt decided people on Macs don’t deserve to use their webpage.
From Safari, IE and Firefox on Mac OS X - Firefox & Safari seems to render the fonts far better - I end up seeing jaggy text in IE - where both Firefox & Safari render the fonts perfect (even MSN.com).
Both IE & safari seem to have minor problems with css positioning - and page elements can occasionaly be in the wrong position.
Certain Javascript which can be used for talking with flash, applets or other dynamic elements required in an online application does not work at all in IE.
Because I am a web developer - for work purposes I use Safari, Firefox, and IE on a mac & IE & Firefox on a PC.
I can get things working on PC in both Firefox, and IE, and on a mac for Firefox & Safari and I cover off the majority of users - but IE for Mac never seems to look or act the same. Often with more complex games I can not get enough functionality in IE on a mac to even both with theat browser market - so I know even what myself & my designers work on may not work in IE on a Mac.
But for personal surfing - on a Mac & PC - I always pick firefox.
Taking off my Mac-user hat and putting on my Web-developer hat, I’ll say it’s because IE supports web standards about as well as George W. Bush supports clear and proper enunciation. IE’s rendering engine on any system is a half-baked kinda-sorta kludge, with a thousand little glitches that us folks building web sites have to design around; the Mac version of IE takes that crappiness and makes it ten times worse.
Safari (or any other non-IE Mac browser) has much better support for these same standards, which means the stuff you see when you’re surfing the net is closer to our intent when you visit our sites. With IE, we’re lucky if you can get a page that’s just formatted properly.
Because Opera has Google built-in, but it’s not customizable. I have Google Toolbar on my IE, and I can customize it to what I use most - regular Google, Goolge Images, and Google This Site.
I can’t get those with Opera.
So I keep using IE.
If Opera and Google ever make the built-in Google customizable, it’s bye-bye, IE.
Security experts often advise using any browser but Explorer (and any e-mail client but Outlook, and any operating system but Windows). The reason is that most viruses, worms etc. are designed first and foremost (and some exclusively) to penetrate Microsoft products. This offers the most bang for the virus-writing buck (MS products are the most widely used) and is often easier (MS products seem to be shot full of exploitable weaknesses).
++Beaming++ I feel a Sally Field moment coming on… You love me. You all love me !! You really do ! Last year I wasn’t sure but this year? I just know it !!!
Okay, okay. When I get to the studio in a few hours, I’ll DL Firefox to the TiBook and noodle around with it.
Some of our website members who are Mac users recommend Camino. I’m not sure why, exactly, I’m no Mac user and have never seen Camino in use, but they certainly seem to like it so I thought I’d throw that into the ring.
