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Internet Explorer..we’ve all seen it develop over the years. Or have we? We’ve seen Internet Explorer release a new version of their browser from time to time, but how much are they really packing under the hood?

You’ll read reviews and cool new features online around Microsoft enthusiast sites, but how many of the new features and updates aren’t already available in an alternative browser? Internet Explorer 7 seems to be the new cool browser of choice among a very large percentage of web surfers, but why are they using it? Is it because of the built-in search box in the upper right corner? Is it the super cool new tabbed browsing? Maybe it’s just the shiny vista-like skin..? Or could it be that it is the most secure browser available?

Basically, all of those questions can be answered with a simple “No”. Many people just aren’t aware that there are better browsers…or to be a little less bias…alternative browsers that can do everything they need! I personally have been using Opera for all of my browsing needs for around nine years now. Around the time that I starting using Opera, Netscape Navigator was a popular choice. However, most people just stuck to what they already had installed, which was Internet Explorer.

Quick facts: A man by the name of Håkon Wium Lie (who is now the CTO of Opera Software ASA) proposed Cascading HTML Style Sheets (CHSS) in October 1994. These style sheets were later used to test browsers compliance to web standards for the first time in 1997. The first test, which was called the Box Acid Test (a.k.a. Acid1 Test), was a simple case test used to help browser developers as they developed and implemented cascading style sheets and accepted it into the web. The next test and probably most famous of the two is know as the Acid2 Test. The purpose of this test was to push developers into implementing new features available through CSS. If a browser passes the test then the page loads fine and looks like a simple little smiley face.

This simple little smiley face is in fact a challenge to reproduce. The test is designed to make the results obvious. Either it passes or it fails. You will see a nasty looking face if it fails (hint: look at it in Internet Explorer here). You should check the Acid2 Test in different browsers that you have installed on your computer and decide for yourself if you want to use a product that has been left behind or if you want to switch to an alternative browser with equal or more features and much better web rendering. Personally I would recommend looking into the following browsers and giving them each a test drive:

SafariThe Opera browser has been known for years for it’s record of being the most secure browser available. You are much more likely to get a nasty virus from the web using Internet Explorer than you are while using a browser such as Opera. Opera was also a pioneer in the beginning of tabbed browsing days. Many other browsers saw the potential and jumped to implement the same thing. Opera was also the first browser to include a quick search box at the top of the window. Opera provides a light weight browser with the fasted speeds of any browser from almost every angle and some of the best web standards support. You can’t go wrong with Opera!Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this! Download some of these browsers and give them a try! Any of them are more capable than Internet Explorer.