It is 2011 and the browser war is hotter than ever.  IE is continuously falling more and more behind(in terms of UI and usability) while it seems that everyone else is becoming better.

Being a long time Firefox fan (pre 1.0 days)  I have seen the browser grow and almost plateau thanks to Google’s Chrome and a host of other competitors.  Internet browsers have always been your window to the web, and like a real-world window you need it to be functional and have the ability to see clearly through the panes.  Although IE is functional, it barely functions.  Initial start-up times are ghastly while competitors such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera blow it away.

While IE might be the most used browser (having over 50% of the marketshare) it certainly seems to be the most hated and lacking in features.  It definitely is not the most friendly; yet, the UI has gotten considerably better over the best few versions.  However, a big “bump” in the road is that the newest version cannot be used on Windows XP, which happens to STILL have considerable market share.

However, when it comes to page rendering and displaying the code the way the designers meant for it to be viewed, hands down the overall winner is Mozilla Firefox.  Although, Chrome is Firefox’s biggest competitor, there is no doubt that certain things consistently appear incorrectly within the browser.  In a comparison against Opera, the last version that I test drove just seemed to be too bulky although page rendering was quite fast.  Last, that leaves Safari and for me the UI renders it horrible to navigate while other browsers make it simple, IE is even better.

Bottom line:  Keep your eyes on Firefox and Chrome.