After rebuilding my computer following a hard drive crash, I've been able to choose to only install the tools that I found most useful. In trying to keep my clutter to a minimum, I faced a difficult decision: which browser to use?
While I don't like the vulnerabilities the Internet Explorer opens me to, I keep my computer patched and have Google Toolbar to help me with pop-ups. FireFox brings a number of very nice features to web browsing, but web page designers often don't think about the non-IE crowd. While I like tabbed browsing, I don't like FireFox's download manager.
What did I choose? Maxthon (formerly MyIE2). Microsoft allows their browser to be used programatically from other software (it's quite feasible to display IE inside FireFox, in fact). Maxthon uses many of the same nice usability tricks that appeal to FireFox users, tabbed browsing, integrated pop-pup blocking, and extensibility.
Maxthon adds a number of other features, some of which you didn't know that you needed (but it turns out you did)! Here's some a list of features from the site:
- Tabbed Browsing Interface
- Mouse Gestures
- Super Drag&Drop
- Privacy Protection
- AD Hunter
- RSS Reader
- Google Bar Support
- External Utility Bar
- Skinning