Singapore has contributed a mere 22,692 downloads, of which I contributed three. I installed one in office, one in desktop PC, and one in my Macbook. Let’s see how many they can get in the remaining 4+ hours.

Have you downloaded Firefox 3?

If you have been using Firefox 2 all the while, or still using any other browsers, join in the download from tomorrow morning. The window is open for 24 hours, so you’ll have plenty of time.

I’ve been using Firefox 3 for a couple of months both in Windows and Mac, and undoubtedly it’s the best browsers out there. Performance is good, the awesome location bar is awesome, ah….. just download it tomorrow and try it out.

Don’t get me wrong, Opera and Firefox has its own merit, but for me, I still prefer Opera for its customize-ability and speed. All extensions that I installed in Firefox, and which I need, I can find a similar match in Opera, so I didn’t feel like losing anything now that I’ve switched back from Firefox to my good ol’ browser Opera


As you can see from above screenshot, I can customize Opera until so minimal that I don’t need the normal File-Edit-View menu anymore. I just collapse it down to a dropdown button, thus giving me more space to view websites. Of course, I don’t really need that Back-Forward-Reload button as I can do everything by mouse-gestures, but I put it there, in case someone else is using my browser and they need those buttons

http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html

After reading the article, if you don’t have a good reason why you are still using one of those slow browsers, I think it’s your time to change your browser.

For myself, I am currently using Firefox 1.0? Why not Opera? It was my favorite browser, but sadly Gmail doesn’t work in Opera as well as in Firefox. I am still waiting eagerly for Opera 8.0, and by that time it launches, don’t be surprised if I switch back to Opera. It has been proven as the fastest browser, and I love a fast browser.

So, which browser are you using right now?

To be fair to Internet Explorer, in my opinion, it’s not because IE is not secure. I think IE is more secure than any browser on the planet, but but mainly because IE was attacked more, that it leaked more than other browsers. I am quite sure if other browsers were to be attacked by the same amount of exploits as IE, they would have leaked much worse.

In any case, that’s not the point of this post. The point I am trying to send across to you is that there are other browsers out there besides IE that you should consider trying, namely Opera and Firefox.
Paul Thurrott has put up an excellent and lengthy article to compare alternative browsers to Internet Explorer, but for you who are not willing to read all those, let me summarize them in a few sentences.
Let’s forget about MyIE2, since it is based on Internet Explorer anyway, it doesn’t stop any security problems.
Consider two alternatives, Opera and Firefox. Paul prefers Firefox, I prefers Opera, your mileage may vary.
You pick Opera when you need a full-featured and complete browser and you are willing to take the time to customize Opera to your heart content, including removing features that you don’t need.
You pick Firefox when you need a simple browser and you are willing to take time to customize Firefox, again to your heart content, but this time, instead of removing features, you will need to add a lot of features in it. Below are few features add-on (they call it extensions) that I install that you may use as a starting point if you decided to go Firefox’s way.
- All-in-One Gestures – I first know such feature from Opera around two years back, and I really can’t live without it that sometimes I started to do funny action in Internet Explorer moving my mouse expecting it to go back one page, but nothing happen, haha.. Opera has this feature longggg time back.
- Gmail Notifier – Mandatory for those having Gmail account.
- Super Drag and Go – you need to open a link in a new tab? Drag the link to an empty space and it’ll open up for you Opera has a different mechanism to achieve the same effect.
- User Agent Switcher – sometimes some sites are really troublesome that they will only show properly if they detect it is IE. Use this to change your ID. Opera has F12 menu to do the same.
- SessionSaver – Close the browser, and when you open it, you continue where you started. Opera has this natively.
- Undoclosetab – Ooopss, I accidentally close the tab. No worry, right click and select undo close tab. Opera has this feature simply by pressing Ctrl-Z.
- Tabbrowser – If you love tabbed browsing than multiple windows browsing, this is a MUST. Again, Opera has this natively.
You see, most of the extensions for Firefox are already available built-in in Opera, you just need to know how to use them.
OK, Let me summarize, hopefully you are not lost.
For Opera, we give you all, you use what you need.
For Firefox, we give you basic, you pick and install what you like.
For Internet Explorer, we give you basic, you stay with basic.
For me? I am staying with Firefox for the moment, until Gmail can work with Opera (soon), then maybe I’ll switch back. We’ll see.

I have been using Opera since it’s version 5 sometime ago and it has been my default browser since version 6.
Opera succeeded to do what Netscape failed to do, convinced me there is a better browser out there than Internet Explorer.
I will tell you below what made me interested in Opera so much.
The few features that I liked are:
- Mouse gestures: You can just move your mouse, left, right, down-left, down-up, up-down to do certain actions like back, forward, close, new page, refresh, etc. It may take a couple of days before I can get the hang of it, but once I am used to the movement, I removed the toolbar since it is no longer necessary, thus giving more screen space for webpages. Another plus point is you won’t ever need to move your mouse to toolbars on top just to do standard actions such as Back or Refresh.
- Tabbed browsing: I usually open several webpages at one time, so tabbed browsing helps me to clear up the clutter of numerous windows in taskbar.
- Popup blocker: You can pick whether you want Opera to always open pop-ups, open them in background, open only pop-ups you requested, or block them altogether.
- Sessions: Do you open Soccernet, StraitsTimes, Blogdrive, and few other websites regularly everday? Opera Sessions can help you saving time by opening all your favorite website with a click of a menu. Really nice touch.
- Nicknames: Do you hate typing www.soccernet.com or www.blogdrive.com everyday? Save them to bookmark, and assign nickname to them, example “sc” or “bg”. So the next time you typed “sc”, it will know that you wanted to visit Soccernet.
- Slideshow: When you browse your friend’s photo album, moving from one picture to another does not require you to go back to thumbnail view and click the next picture. You can use Opera Fast Forward function, and it will know that you wanted the next picture.
- Others: Google built-in, integrated download manager, slideshow, Zooming and skinning ability, IRC chat support, and many more. Check here for complete list of features.
Although Opera sometimes suffers from not being able to show some webpages properly, I now realized that means that particular webpage does not adhere to HTML standard out there. That usually happens for websites created with many non-standard scripts. Most of the websites I visited out there rendered perfectly fine with Opera, so what are you waiting for? Download it now and try it to prove for yourself if it’s indeed the fastest browser on earth

As usual, comments are very welcomed.