Last updated 20/08/2006
Copyright © 1999 - 2004, Sandra Hardmeier, All Rights Reserved Worldwide

There are lots of browsers out there, some that use Internet Explorer technology as a base, and some that don't. Over the years I have experimented with a myriad of different programmes, including all the well known ones such as IE, Mozilla, Netscape, Firefox, Opera, Avant, and MyIE2 (now called Maxthon).  Some have stayed on my system (Opera and Firefox).  Others haven't.

Tabbed browsing is an oft requested feature, as is pop-up blocking.  Some people also want email integration and newsgroups.  Mouse gestures are becoming more popular.  I'm not going to highlight the well known alternative browsers, but instead feature less well known ones that have caught my imagination for whatever reason.

Deepnet Explorer

This is a VERY cool browser which uses IE's HTML engine.  The home site is:
http://deepnetexplorer.com/support.asp

There are two versions  available, personal which includes a P2P client or corporate which does not include a P2P client.

The feature that draws me to this programme is not the tabbed browsing, or the pop-up blocker, or the built in P2P client, or the claimed extra security.  It is the  RSS news reader (screenshots below).  Once you've started reading news services using an RSS feed you won't go back to the old way of browsing web sites :)

Deepnet also has a simple anti-phish ability and an interesting idea called 'Password Hashing' which seems to prevent sensitive data that is entered into a web site form from being used on any other web site.  I do not have the skills to test this feature so do not recommend that such an ability be a reason to 'drop your guard', so to speak.

Kopassa Browser

This brower has a steep learning curve, and is not always stable, but it sure is interesting. It can be downloaded from:
http://www.kopassa.com/

Instead of using tabbed windows, Kopassa provides a series of thumbnails. Simply click on a thumbnail to navigate to that site.  The history thumbnails (top of screen) are preserved between browsing sessions, and can be easily removed using right click.  Kopassa provides is the ability to highlight any word on a web page, right click that word and do an search for that word using a myriad of search engines or even access translation services.  You can download all graphics on a page, pull up a list of all links on a page and even automatically navigate to the 'home page' of a particular site even if you have never been there before (eg from http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/Darnit.htm straight to http://inetexplorer.mvps.org) with the click of one button.