The official weblog of ClickBook.net. ClickBook streamlines the process of appointment scheduling for small business, schools and other organisations. For technical updates please visit the Technical Blog.

About ’browsers’

Mark Demicoli  14 January 2011 07:47:16 PM
When you buy a computer, it will almost always come with a built-in internet 'browser'.  The choice of browser that your vendor imposes upon you is decided for political or commercial reasons.  That's all I'll say about that for now.

Image:About ’browsers’

You are probably using Internet Explorer, Apple Safari or Mozilla Firefox to 'drive' the internet, and you probably didn't decide to either.  Some might even use Google Chrome, the new kid on the block.

Your browser is your 'car' to navigate the 'roads' of the internet.  This post is a quick rundown of the 'cars' available, and how you can choose the right 'car' for you.

The key browsers today are Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome.  All of these are available on both the PC and Mac.  Here is our experience of the main players.  If you want to avoid the nerd-logic, skip ahead to the end.  The following few paragraphs are purely academic.


Image:About ’browsers’


Internet Explorer, while being the essential vehicle of the internet during most of the 90's and early 2000's, has now become slow and belligerent.  Once a pioneer in the area, it is now best avoided, due to it's corporate focus, audacious (failed) attempts to set standards with a resting on it's market dominance,  and rejection of world standards.

FireFox was the breath of fresh air, so to speak, bringing discipline to Internet browsing.  We have a lot of respect for Firefox, however it may not be suitable for computers with limited memory.  It IS a bit of a hog, and slows down over time, while providing many more features for the serious browser user.  Even so, it's extensive features and fabulous support for 'plugins' cannot be discounted.

Apple Safari is Apple's standard Internet browser on all Mac computers.  It has in recent times been released for Windows users, however it should be approached with caution on PCs, as it is built on the same technology as Internet Explorer.  For Apple users, Mozilla Firefox is a serious alternative when things don't quite work on your favourite websites.

Then, ofcourse, we have Google Chrome, the new kid on the block. It has made a hugely impressive debut into the market. Much like FireFox in it's ability to browse the web problem free, it is significantly smaller and quick to load and therefore best recommended on computers that are slower.   Yes, Google Chrome is effectively the fastest browser out there.

If our bias isn't obvious, let me spell it out.

We really like Mozilla FireFox and Google Chrome.  In fact, we do our initial testing of new features on FireFox due to it's adherence to internet standards.  Due to it's various personalities, we spend a lot of time making ClickBook work on Internet Explorer, which we wish we did not have to.

Sorry Microsoft!

Mozilla Firefox can be found here, and Google Chrome can be found at here.
Comments

1Ari Hahn  06/05/11 3:00:30 AM  IE

Personal preferences aside, what is important is that all of the functions of my website work properly on any browser that a potential client might use. I have a problem getting the clickbook widget to appear on my site when run on IE. $#1T!!! I do hope I get an answer and a fix ASAP!

2Cynthia Wunsch  21/03/11 1:30:56 AM  I love opera!

And not only because I sing at work! I have used Opera since the early days, and I have reasonably have 50 tabs open in the same window with tab stacking, and even with only 1gb of memory in the computer, Opera is still lightning fast. The reason most people's experience of Opera is glitchy is because web pages are not built to standard and Opera is pretty strict about how it interprets standards. However, when web pages are coded properly, Opera is a pure joy to use!

3Ben McKinley - Osteopath Mon Thu Fri  16/01/11 10:48:18 PM  Untitled

I agree with Leo Garcia's comment!!! The new booking system freezes on us at work. Took 30 minutes to book someone in. VERY annoying.

4Susan Folker  15/01/11 10:31:59 AM  Browser

I use firefox and I am quite happy with it. I downloaded Chrome in its early stages and it froze everytime I tried to use it. so I am afraid to try it again. My son-in-law is in IT and recommends the firefox. He says its safer

5Steve Olsen ND  15/01/11 5:11:49 AM  Email duplicated won’t hold

I like your system a lot overall.

One problem I have had is that if two patients share the same email address the clickbook system won't let me use the same email address for both of them.

Perhaps you could fix this and allow the same email to be used for as many patients as we want to use it for.

PS: I find Chrome the best also.

Thanks,

Steve

6William Bagley  15/01/11 5:02:40 AM  Untitled

I use Firefox, Chrome, and Opera. Firefox has the best add ons and allows very customization. I like "paste email plus" to fill in text boxes when the pastes are repetitive. Much better and faster than a clip board. Chrome seems to handle video streaming very seamlessly. I am on a Linux Mint OS and Chrome is able to stream video with the same extension that Firefox was not able to use (on Hulu.com). Opera is a little glitchy at times and does not have the same quality of add ons, but they are allowing a person to have a "virtual server" on Opera Unite and this allows people from many places to conference on projects in new ways.

7Leo Garcia  15/01/11 4:52:10 AM  Issues with IE and Chrome

With the newest update by ClickBook the custom booking section really sucks. When selecting a client or trying to create a new client you get the customer dropdown list and it DOES NOT go away. It is kind of hard to complete the booking when you can't see what you are typing. Please fix this soon.