10 Top Web Browsers of All Time

For surfing the web, a top web browser is not only required but appreciated. You’ll surely feel more comfortable knowing that your browser is secure and reliable. After all, it is involved in sensitive procedures like storing passwords, accessing secured sites for online banking and so on.

Today, we’ll take a look at some of the browsers that have come and gone and list the top web browsers of all time.

The first ever web browser was WorldWideWeb. Soon, Mosaic was released in 1993, and Microsoft launched the widely-used Internet Explorer in 1995. With an increase in the number of people exposed to the Internet, the browser war soon started. Now, there are a variety of browsers, some even designed for specific purposes like social networking. Some are widely used, and some vanished before they’re heard of.
Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera are the top web browsers today.

Top Web Browsers of All Time #1. Firefox

Firefox has a fairly decent share of the web browser market with a healthy 21.86%. It is mainly because Firefox is an open source web browser with exceptional community support. Along with other regular features, it has a private browsing mode, improved security, smooth and fast browsing, built-in spelling checker, and allows for various customisations. I personally love its add-ons which are open source developments. Firefox 4 is probably the best browser right now in terms of features. Based on its success, Mozilla has now launched a mobile web browser as well.


Supported platforms: Windows, Linux and Mac
Download the latest version here

Top Web Browsers of All Time #2. Google Chrome

Google Chrome was developed in December 2008 by Google targeting users who wanted a simple browsing experience. And it became successful in a short span of time due to a very effective advertising campaign by Google, plus the Google Chrome is very good web browser.  Google Chrome was the first browser which emphasised on maximising browsing window space, which was later followed by the leading browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox. Google Chrome skins allow users to customise the browser’s layout to heighten their browsing experience. Adding to its list of innovative features are fast startup times and incognito browsing.
Supported platforms: Windows, Linux and Mac
Download the latest version here

Top Web Browsers of All Time #3. Opera

Developed by Opera Software and available to the public in 1996, Opera’s unique feature is its integrated Bittorrent client. Acclaimed as the fastest web browser, Opera is geared with all the features of the mainstream browsers. One of the best features of Opera is its “Opera Turbo Mode“. This mode speeds up (doubles or triples) surfing on slow connections by using Opera’s proxy servers to compress data and image traffic before it reaches the Opera browser on the client computer.
Opera was the first web browser for mobile phones.

Supported platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux
Download the latest version here

Top Web Browsers of All Time #4. Safari

Apple Inc developed Safari in the year 2003 as a part of Mac OS. Its elegant design (like all Apple products), HTML 5 and CSS3 support, webkit, private browsing are some of the features which make it stand out. Safari is the default browser for Mac OS, iPad, iPod touch and iPhone and works on Windows and Linux as well. Many people download it just because it gives a Mac-like browsing experience.

Supported platforms: Windows, Mac
Download the latest version here

Top Web Browsers of All Time #5. Rockmelt

You can call it a social media web browser, as it integrates Twitter, Facebook and Google Search. Rockmelt comes with a Facebook sidebar in case you want to contact any of your Facebook friends directly from the browser. There is a chat bar as well and you’re able to use to that update your Facebook status or change your profile picture. Virtually any Facebook-related task may be performed without leaving the active tab. There is also a mobile version for iOS.

Supported platforms: Windows, Mac
Download the latest version here
You may still download a copy of Netscape Navigator here

Top Web Browsers of All Time #6. Avant Browser

Based on Internet Explorer, Avant Browser is a no-frills, simple browser. It might fall short of the professional alternatives like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, but was fairly popular for its Opera-like approach of having a tabbed browsing interface. Internet Explorer had problems rendering certain web-pages which were not tested for IE compatibility and Avant swooped in to provide Opera-like features on an Internet Explorer platform launching these problematic webpages without a hiccup.

Supported platform: Windows
Download the latest version here

Top Web Browsers of All Time #7. Maxthon Web Browser

Maxthon might not be a very popular browser nor is it geared with top-notch features like Firefox and Chrome. Still, I find it unique because it is a powerful tabbed browser meant for users who are fed up of browser crashes. In other mainstream browsers, if one tab freezes, it’ll take the whole browser down with it, but with Maxthon’s isolator technology, a wall is built around each tab that prevents a bad page from freezing the entire browser. All in all, a better web experience is guaranteed if you like surfing many websites in a single session. Maxthon has also released a browser for Android phones and boasts of having the best RSS reader for mobile phones.
Platform support: Windows, Android

Download the latest version here

Top Web Browsers of All Time #8. Deepnet Explorer

Deepnet Explorer claims to be the world’s first browser with a built-in RSS news reader, phishing alarm and P2P client integration. Users can share files on the Gnutella network with the advanced version of Deepnet. Its RSS reader also comes with many news feeds pre-installed and is easy-to-use.

Supported platform: Windows
Download the latest version here

Top Web Browsers of All Time #9. Netscape Navigator

Based on the Mosaic browser, Netscape Navigator was very popular in the 1990s. By 2002, its usage had come to a decline due to the increased popularity of a better Internet Explorer. Later, Netscape Navigator was acquired by AOL, which decided to permanently halt development of Netscape Navigator browsers in 2007.
Netscape Navigator will always be remembered as the most-widely used browser by the early internet generation (users in 1990s), and impressed one and all through a simplistic web experience.

Supported platforms: Windows, Linux and Mac

Top Web Browsers of All Time #10. Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer is the most widely-used web browser in the market since its launch in 1995, probably because it comes included with Windows. Late last century, Internet Explorer had a huge market share and was the unanimous leader in the web browser market. With the growth of Firefox and Chrome, Internet Explorer’s user share dropped to 55.1% in April 2011 from almost 90% in 2004 (source: Wikipedia). In its current version, Internet Explorer 9 has pinning functionality, tab enhancements, InPrivate Browsing, and Windows 7 integration. With Internet Explorer 8 being a major flop, Internet Explorer 9 looks like its reversing Microsoft’s fortunes in the browser war with innovative features.

Supported platform: Windows
Download the latest version here
Through the above list, I’ve tried showcasing the top web browsers to date. Some web browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer have become very popular, and have captured a fair share of the market. Others like Maxthon and Rockmelt have come up with very innovative features and target a specific user-base only. With the rapid advances in technology, browsers made specifically for mobile phones are becoming more popular.
The browser war is surely going to continue getting fiercer by the day, but this is one war which the whole of mankind (or should I say, the tech world) is going to benefit from. I for sure, would love trying different browsers to meet my ultimate goal when in front of my computer — to simplify browsing the web. Till then, I love my Firefox and Chrome.
What are you favourite browsers? Any suggestions to add to this list? Voice out in the comments.