IE was a constant pain: despite a broadband connection at home, the browser was slow, and I did not like opening a new browser to go to a new page. IE didn’t feel intuitive at all, and appeared to have been built by geeks with geeks in mind — not novices. As time went on, I became more aware of and worried by the holes in the software which could lead to security issues.

I had used Mosaic then Netscape Navigator before moving to IE, having found that a lot of sites were not giving the same results as IE. Some 18 months ago, I tried and liked an earlier version of Opera, but again found there were one or two issues with it, so I went on to Avant (an IE plug-in) — that was fantastic!

After some months, my son-in-law told me that Opera had brought out a new version of their browser, so I went back to it. I now use Opera all the time, and cannot see myself using anything else. My favourites and bookmarks are there from the other browsers I have used — they are easier to manage, and all the sites I go to work very well in the browser.

One of the real benefits from using Opera is that I can alter the way in which a Web site appears in the browser. If I want to see how a Web site looks in IE then I can do so just by changing one option in Opera. Similarly, there are other browser types available. This is very important when I am trying out a new page on my site.

It is easier to open multiple sites at the same time, or to re-open sites which you visited before you closed the browser down. It has email and chat functions, it’s faster, and it’s free — all in all, much better than IE!

Now, I’m currently using Firefox as my browser and I love it. I made the switch just a couple of weeks ago — I really like the speed at which it loads content, tabbed browser windows, development and improvement through extensions, seamless pop-up blocking, integration with search engines, and ease of use overall. It has made my Web browsing experience even more enjoyable.

I can’t say enough good things about my new browser’s intelligent interface — and don’t get me started on tabbed browsing! Instead of opening new windows when I’m on a forum or reading a multi-page article.

Firefox is a lot more stable than Internet Explorer; I’ve been using the browser for a while now, and it’s never once crashed on me. I don’t want to think about life on IE again!