I decided to go a little bit further than my last article and go ahead and download a couple more browsers and test them for you all and so that I would finally have a browser that I loved with all of my heart. So, I downloaded Mozilla and Avant. That brings the total to five; Avant, Mozilla, Firebird, Slimbrowser, and good old (or bad) Internet Explorer. Let me break them down and some of their features...

Slimbrowser
I'll start with this one first. Like Avant, it is basically a "skin" for Internet Explorer and runs off of basically the same engine. This also means that it imports your history and bookmarks (every tested browser imports your bookmarks automatically so you can kind of discard that). I like that it favors tabbed browsing as much if not the most out of all of these browsers. On its default settings it opens up links to new sites in a new tab. It is easy to close tabs (either right click and hit the FIRST option or you can set it to double click to close) or hide tabs. At first it doesn't look too much different from IE and comes with several bars enabled so it is not exactly out of your way (these can be turned off if needed). Along with most of the other browsers it has a group option that allows you to open mutliple pages with a couple clicks, perfect if you have a daily routine. Another thing I liked was the easy of the pop up blocker, if it misses one simply right click on the tab and hit the last option "Add into Black List" which is a bit easier than any of the others.

Avant
Avant is pretty much exactly like Slimbrowser. It doesn't defaulty open in new sites in a new tab but I'm sure theres an option to do that. I liked how it is kind of "out of your way" and lets you browse without being reminded of a million taskbars and buttons all over the place. At default the tab bar is at the bottem of the screen which I really liked, a sort of windows feel which helps reduce the feeling of those taskbars I was talking about. Another thing I liked was the status bar that auctually had a percentage of how much the page had loaded so far. Also helpful was the taskbar icon that, when clicked, minimized or unminimized the browser and allows access to most any option. It, like Slimbrowser and most other browsers are starting to incorperate, also has a groups feature. Another nice feature is the ability to save windows on exit without the use of an extension such as in the case of Firebird. The only possible problem I see (besides the possibility of people not liking that it's based on IE) is that it cators to tabbed folks and I couldn't figure out how to make something open in a new window.

Firebird
I talked about this one last time but I'll talk a little more about it now. At default Firebird cators more to windowed folks and to make it more to my liking I had to tweak a couple options and download a couple extensions to switch it more to a tabbed environment. Even after this however, it still switches a bit, opening some links in a new window and some in a new tab which can be annoying. Firebird has options galore. You can make it completly center around you, more so I think than any other browser with the use of plug ins, extensions, and lots of options and settings. All of these are sort of hidden behind the menu and one row of settings buttons below the address bar with the forward, back, reload, etc. buttons. A nice implementation is a default Google search box beside the address bar. Since I first gotten it, Firebird has become sort of sluggish and seems to take a second or two to respond but other than that is a decent performer. Another disadvanted is that unlike the IE browsers, Flash and other plug ins will be needed to downloaded again. This also goes with Mozilla. A small annoyance but one none the less.

Mozilla
Mozilla is to Netscape what Slimbrowser and Avant are to IE. If you have ever used Netscape, espically earlier versions, when you first start Mozilla you will be in for an encounter of deju vu. Like Firebird, Mozilla is defautly a more of a windowed browser as opposed to tabs. Again a little bias here since I am a more tabbed person. So far I haven't really experimented with solutions for this but I'm sure there are some out there. Mozilla is a basic, easy to use, browser sort of meant for the average person who is tired of IE but doesn't want to be bogged down with extras and options. Don't get me wrong, there are options and settings to tweak if you so desire, but none are needed to enjoy a simple, basic experience. A nice option is a quick start icon in the taskbar which can be used to option it at the click of a button. Like Firebird, I didn't notice a group feature but this is sure to be avialbe via extensions and such.

Internet Explorer
If you are on a Windows computer... no, let me backtrack. You are on a computer. If you don't know what Internet Explorer is (even if you in your twisted mind think that Internet Explorer is THE INTERNET), you deserve to be... um... ya, nevermind. I really shouldn't have to say anything.

Ok now for the benchmarks! The computer I used was this one with Windows XP Home on it. On this machine I have 128 megs of ram and a 800 mhz Pentium 3 processor. I am the only user logged in and everything but this doccument, ZoneAlarm, and the five browsers are running. I choose to do this because most of the time people are doing other things while browsing (well me at least) and this will simulate a more real life scenario. I opened each site twice and will record both and the average. I will be using three sites, Google, GameFAQs, and BestBuy. For the pop up testing I will be refreshing Newgrounds five times. For the file download I will be downloading ZoneAlarm Basic. Before starting all the caches and temporary files were cleared from each browser. All other tabs were closed while testing that site. Here are the results... (in seconds)

Avant IE Slim Firebird Moz
Google 1: 2 2 1.5 2 2.5 Slim
Google 2: <1 1 1 1 <1 Avant/Mozilla
Google A: <1.5 1.5 1.25 1.5 <1.75 Avant/Slimbrowser
GF1: 2 2 2.5 2.5 2 Avant/IE/Mozilla
GF2: <1 3 1.5 2 2 Avant
GF A: <1.5 2.5 2 2.25 2 Avant
BB1: 3.5 3 3.5 3.5 4 IE
BB2: 2 3 2.5 4.5 3.5 Avant
BB A: 2.5 3 3 4 3.75 Avant


Pop Up Test: (Blocked/Total If Applicable)
Avant: 2/2
IE: 0/1 (All blocked when google toolbar blocker activated)
Slimbrowser: All Blocked
Firebird: All Blocked
Mozilla: One showed up with a message asking if I wanted to enable the blocker, after I did so all were blocked.

After that (with Newgrounds still loaded in each browser), I decided to see how much memory each was using on my computer. First, I recorded how much each was using minimized.
Avant: 2-3.5k
Slimbrowser:4.5-6k
IE: 3.6-5k
Firebird: 3.4-10k
Mozilla: 7.2-10k

Then, I recorded how long it took each to fully maximize. (in seconds)
Avant: 2.5
IE: 3
Slim: 1.5
Firebird: 4
Mozilla: 2

Then, I recorded how much memory it was taking up maximized.
Avant: 9.7-10k
IE: 9-9.5k
Slimbrowser: 10-10.5k
Firebird:11-13.5k
Mozilla: 10-11k

Overall, I really can't say any browser is "the best". To be honost though, it looks like Avant did the best in the tests I ran. Some people will really not notice that extra second or two in loading if they really love the features a browser offers them. For me, I'm going to be trying Avant a little more since I had never used it and it certainly came as a pleasant surprise. Also, I think I will be deleting Mozilla since I really have no use for it with Firebird giving me many more options and lots more to do. I may or may not keep Slimbrowser depending on how much Avant grows on me. Sorry about any formatting issues in this (if there are any *crosses fingers*) and any spelling mistakes. Each of these browsers was built by a real living person (except maybe IE =D) so if you like it don't forget to tell them how much you appriciate it!

Feel free to leave comments/flames/corrections/random spew/spam/questions!

-Gamefreak99