Internet browsers, they are probably the most important piece of software on any modern computer. The browser has to read websites code and show a webpage to us correctly. Some browsers don't display websites correctly or recognise important standards like CSS2. So which ones do what? And which ones are the better?

First of all lets see who are the major players currently playing in the browser wars. Listed in no particular order we have Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Firefox, Apple’s Safari, Google’s browser called Chrome, there are others like Netscape and Opera but for now we will stick to mainstream.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer

IE is the most popular web browser in the world. That’s not to say that it is the best just that it is installed on the most machines. Internet Explorer has come along way from its beginnings.

This Internet browser has been designed for accessing a wide variety of web sites and content. Valuable features offered by Internet Explorer include pop-up blockers and tabbed browsing capabilities. The main criticisms of this Internet browser have focused on Internet Explorer's security problems and they have ignored CSS standards, that's why many websites won't open correctly. IE works only on Windows XP or Vista.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox is the one of the best browsers around. Firefox is commonly known as the website developers browser because of its very fast speed and has many add-ons, which can be downloaded from their official website. Firefox is an Internet browser that works with just about any operating platform including: Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. This graphic browser offers a great selection of features. Firefox pioneered tabbed browsing, which was recently picked up by Internet Explorer.

Firefox remains the most-recommended web browser for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux users. Reviews say Firefox 3 and (and its 3.1 beta) are even better. Firefox is rapidly gaining market share, mostly at the expense of Explorer. As of January 2009, Firefox was used by about 21% of all Internet users, an figure which is increasing yearly.

Safari

Safari is a browser found on Apple Macintosh systems, but has recently been released for Windows too. It is a great browser that has been integrated into the Mac OS X operating platform. It has many of the same features as Internet Explorer and Firefox, including: QuickTime multimedia technology, a tabbed-browsing interface system, and Internet searching tools.

The fastest web browser today, Safari loads and draws pages up to 3 times faster than Firefox 2 and up to 5.5 times faster than Opera 9. And it executes JavaScript up to 2.7 times faster than Firefox 2 and up to 2.6 times faster than Opera 9.1. What does all that mean for you? Less time loading pages and more time enjoying them. Safari is by far the most popular browser for Mac OS X systems, but people who use both Windows and Mac systems now have a choice between Safari and Firefox, since both offer a common interface and can share bookmarks.

Google Chrome

Chrome is a relative newcomer to the browser arena, released by Google in September of 2008. Google says that Chrome was built from scratch, and is designed to handle the modern web all the cool stuff web users want to do, such as video, online games, and web-based applications.

Google Chrome browser is stripped down for fast browsing, with superb built-in search features, private browsing and a task manager to help prevent crashes. Chrome also makes it possible to use Google desktop applications offline. The four basic deign pillars of Chrome are Stability, Speed, Security and Simplicity. However, it's still a work in progress with few add-ons available, and since it's so new, some sites won't display properly. Chrome is still in beta, and is available only on Windows platforms for now.