Need a new browser? Give these a try

The latest report from StatCounter shows that Irish web users are coming down firmly on the Chrome side of the fence, with Safari running second and Firefox in third. But further afield, web users are branching out from the top names and trying to find browsers that are a little more tailored to their needs.

If you are open to trying a new web browser, here are some suggestions.

Cowoon:

If you are a bit of a browser gamer, the Coowon browser offers some nice features, like automated tools to take care of some of the more tedious tasks, support for Gamepad, record and play mouse clicks and the ability to control game speed. It’s Chrome based and comes for both Windows and Mac.

coowon.com

Midori

Those with systems that tend to creak under the pressure some web browsers put on your system may find some light relief in Midori. The browser is a stripped down but not bare bones; it has speed dial and supports multiple tabs for example. The default search engine is DuckDuckGo, which claims to protect your privacy, and there are built-in privacy tools to block cookies and disable third-party scripts. It’s not perfect, but it is nicely designed, and bar some minor annoyances, it gets the job done.

midori-browser.org

Epic

Privacy is becoming increasingly important to consumers. It’s not just about who is listening in on your private conversations; it’s also about advertisers learning your behaviour, marketing products to you and generally knowing far too much about you. Epic is keen to point that out, and gives you a full breakdown on who is spying on you through Chrome, Firefox and IE using html cookies. There’s a built in encrypted proxy with a US based IP that you can enable at the touch of a button. Your searches are protected from tracking and it also blocks cookies and third-party trackers.

Epicbrowser.com

Browzar:

Browzar is designed to be a throwaway, a browser you can use and when it closes, it takes all evidence of your activity with it. It doesn’t save cookies, passwords, temporary files and web history. That may not seem too much different from the incognito or private browsing mode you’ll find on most modern software, but Browzar can be put on a USB key and taken with you, so you can use it on shared computers without ever having to install anything. It wraps around Internet Explorer, so you will need that on the machine too.

The documentation says it will run on systems up to Windows 7 but it ran perfectly well on Windows 10 during tests.

Browzar.com

Tor Browser

If you need a bit more protection, Tor Browser allows you to navigate the web relatively anonymously, using the power of the Tor network. It hides your identity through encrypting traffic and moving it between servers, allowing you to conceal your presence from advertisers and law enforcement alike. It’s also a good way to get around blocked sites. The browser doesn’t need a lot of technical knowhow to configure it properly - it’s already done for you - but bouncing all that traffic around means it won’t be the fastest out there. Security over speed, in this case. It’s not completely foolproof though, and people can be rooted out with enough effort and resources. Just one to keep in mind.

torproject.org