Technology Definition
There are many types of browsers which mostly come with the operating systems. Internet users can either use them or install other browsers from different vendors. Internet Explorer IE is a browser for Windows operating system while Safari is mainly for Mac operating systems. Those who use the popular operating systems Windows have a chance to choose from other types of operating systems (Korpela, 1998). The five major operating systems include; Internet Explorer, Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera browser. This paper will look at the advantages of the listed major browsers apart from Opera browser. Apart from speed there are many other unique features that each browser can offer and they are key factors in deciding which browser to use. The four browsers all of them appear to be meeting the primary objective of offering access to the web content with minimal disappointments.
Google Chrome 25 has a simple address bar and with the menu tab that can be configured to add as many tabs as possible, users can delete tabs they think are not valuable to them. It works well and delivers the content in a two bar layout browser. The bookmark icon represented by a star like image offers flexibility in terms of marking the favorite sites. Mozilla Firefox 19 has a very useful layout compared to others. It also offers similar bookmark feature just like Chrome with a single click. Firefox does not unite the search bar and address bar together like other browsers. Internet Explorer offers a bar that serves as address and search bar. Safari is another browser that offers good services to users. The current version is user friendly and attractive with a address-search bar (Windrum, 2004).
Business Application(s)
When it comes to speed and compatibility, all the browsers are fast and response effectively. The table below shows some other aspects of the browsers. There are metrics used in measuring some of the features of the browsers.
One of the features that we will look at among the browsers is the cold boot-up. The time between starting the browser and that particular moment of typing in the web address and start searching contents on the website. In this feature, Google Chrome (version 19) is the fastest browser with four seconds followed by Internet Explorer with about seven seconds then Mozilla Firefox with slightly above seven seconds. When it comes to loading of the tabs Mozilla Firefox is the fasted browser to load nine tabs in about seven seconds followed by Internet Explorer then Chrome.
The HTML 5 technology is the recent version of the browsers that offer greater business opportunities. This is because it is powerful and has cross-section tools. It offers developers a platform for their mobile and web applications. This technology is an open standard and it gets support from all the major industry such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, Adobe and Facebook. This web browser technology enables developers to develop applications which can run on all applications especially mobile. There are a lot of multimedia support by the new technology offering interactive platform to different users. Developing business applications inside the browser has been established as the fastest way by developers. The importance of applications based on the browser is that they can run on any operating system. Users will also no need to install the business applications before using them.
Advertising is also a business service application that has come up in many browsers. In-browser ads can result into a lot of revenue for the company however, there are issues of acceptance among users. User wants browsers which do not offer ads since they are seen as taking their private data. Paid web services are another business opportunity for browser vendors.
Business/Society Implication
Creating HTML5 web pages is time consuming because cross-platform layout issues need to be sorted out. This has raised the issue of high cost of development. The cross-browser compatibility has also raised several issues which must be considered. These issues include the tables, layouts, background tasks and frames are issues that need to be considered.
Reference
Korpela, M. (1998). From legacy systems via client/server to web browser technology in hospital informatics in Finland. Studies in health technology and informatics, (1), 222-226.
Windrum, P. (2004). Leveraging technological externalities in complex technologies: Microsoft’s exploitation of standards in the browser wars. Research Policy, 33(3), 385-394.
