The Best Web Browser

Google Chrome

You might have already read our take on which web browser you should be using as your default web browser if you are a web developer. And we strongly recommend that you use Google Chrome, or at the very least, a Chromium-based web browser like Brave if you have serious privacy concerns.

Why Chrome?

The primary reason is market share. This linked graph shows us that at least 2-out-of-3 people browsing the World Wide Web are using Chrome worldwide. And that includes all possible devices, whether they are desktops, laptops, tablets, or mobile devices like phones. If the code you write works well and looks good on your own computer running Chrome, then it will probably look good and work well on at least two-thirds of the devices that are out there.

But there is a secondary reason that is also very important. Google Chrome and all Chromium-based browsers have the best dev tools built into the browser as well. Any time you want to inspect code or view page source, you will get the best results with Chrome dev tools.

Another important feature incorporated into Chrome dev tools is the ability to check your code for mobile responsiveness. Did you know that the effective resolution of older Macbooks Air 13-inch laptop computers is only 1280 x 800 pixels? And that even newer Macbook 13-inch Airs have a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels? Using Chrome dev tools, you can change the display resolution to emulate both of these Macbook Air models, and also the screen resolution for any iPad, iPhone, Android phone, etc. That makes Chrome a priceless tool for testing, since it would be cost-prohibitive to have to purchase an extensive collection of computers and mobile devices to test your code.

We also believe that Chrome conforms best to the standards established by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), and the HTML standards established by the WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group), and the JavaScript and ECMAScript standards that are the responsibility of Ecma International (even though to be technically correct, JavaScript uses its own JavaScript engine that is separate from the browser engine, which we will discuss next).

Browser Engines

Currently, there are only three Browser Engines in common use today. And they are:

• Blink → used by Google Chrome and all other Chromium-based browsers.
• WebKit → used by Apple's Safari browser, and iOS and iPadOS browsers as well.
• Gecko → used mostly by Mozilla Firefox and their Thunderbird mail application.

Why is this important to know? It is important to know because when we start talking about Chromium-based web browsers, we are also talking about Microsoft's Edge browser, and the Opera web browser, which is actually quite popular in Europe. So once again, if your code works on Chrome, it also works on Edge, Opera, and also on Brave, the new kid on the block.

Browser Compatibility

If you look at this StatCounter chart again, you will see that Safari commands a rather large market share as the #2 most popular web browser. And that is because Safari is the default web browser on basically every product that Apple makes. Apple Mac desktops and laptops do allow users to install other web browsers like Chrome, but some users won't do that. Unfortunately, users of iPhones and iPads aren't given that option. So making sure your code is compatible with Safari is somewhat important. But the lack of good development tools makes Safari unsuitable for web development in our opinion.

Edge is the #3 most popular browser out there. But the good news is that, since Edge is a Chromium-based browser, it really doesn't matter that Microsoft makes Edge the default web browser on all Windows computers. So even if users don't choose to install Chrome as their default browser, your code will generally work just fine on their Edge web browsers. But Microsoft locks down their Edge browser settings, and that makes Edge more difficult to use as your default web browser for web development. Microsoft also insists on forcing users to use Bing as their default search engine, and that alone infuriates users who would prefer to use Google or almost any other search engine.

Lastly, we must mention that there are times when your code will not work perfectly on Mozilla Firefox, especially your JavaScript code. Mozilla wants to be a major player, as illustrated by their MDN Web Docs website. And Firefox has their own dev tools that are similar and yet a little different than Chrome's dev tools. But since Firefox is based on the Gecko browser engine, that browser often behaves quite differently than Chrome. And when you consider that, coupled with its #4 market share, its easy to see why Chrome should always be your first choice for a default web browser.

Luckily, anyone can install Firefox, Opera, and Brave for free on their computers, so this makes testing your code on these web browsers as easy as pie.

Going Deeper Into Market Share

This graph illustrates which web browsers are the most popular among desktop and laptop users. Notice here that almost 3-out-of-4 users browse the World Wide Web using Chrome. And it is also interesting that Edge is #2, while Safari is #3, which is probably due to the fact that Windows is the most popular operating system in the world, and that Apple allows Mac users to install Chrome on their computers.

This graph shows us which web browsers are the most popular among mobile device users. Here we see that Safari takes a much larger market share because Apple does not allow iPhone and iPad users to install any browser other than Safari. And as one might expect, Android users all use Chrome.

When you combine all of the various device platforms together, you get a graph that looks like this.

Online Privacy Concerns

Yes, yes, we've heard it all before. Google mines your data when you use their browser and their search engine. And while that may be true, do you think that Microsoft does not mine your data when you use Edge or Bing? And how about Apple when you use their Safari browser? Are you so naive that you think they don't? What this discussion all boils down to is a matter of trust. If you trust one of these companies over another, then please exercise your discriminating level of trust judiciously. But also ask yourself, "What do I have to hide anyway?" Certainly, criminals and terrorists have a lot to hide. But isn't it ironic how many of them get caught over posts they made on Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and the list of other social media platforms that goes on and on.

Everyone has privacy concerns over the confidentiality of their identity and personal information. Most of these concerns were violated as soon as the web was invented and implemented. For instance, the use of cookies was a good idea that turned bad almost immediately. So much so, that the European Union passed a Cookie Directive law that requires websites that use cookies to give you the option of whether to accept cookies or not. Of course, the downside to this is that the information that you are seeking may not be available to you if  you refuse their cookie invitations. What a bummer!

Thanks to the anger from an outraged cybercommunity, Web3 is being developed to fix this problem. And of course, the major players who have controlled the web browser marketplace for decades have downplayed its significance. They offer you incognito mode or private browsing, and VPN (virtual private network) software products to help quell your anger, but the development of Web3 technologies continues, even though full implementation is still a long way off. Privacy of your personal information will be a top priority of Web3, as well as full protection of your identity and your financial security, through online transactions possibly made through cryptocurrencies. But if the utter volatility of the crypto market is any indication of how long this transition could take, we recommend that you don't hold your breath while you wait for it.

Some people have already jumped on the bandwagon by installing the Brave Chromium-based web browser, and by setting their default search engine to DuckDuckGo. Brave appears to be much more secure than most other popular browsers, mostly because it cannot be identified on the internet, and therefore its popularity cannot be tracked, even by StatCounter GlobalStats. And that is truly impressive, considering the huge numbers of people on the internet who are currently using Brave as their default web browser. And DuckDuckGo claims that they do no telemetric data collection. And we are absolutely certain that both Google and Bing definitely do collect your data when you do your searches on their search engines.

Some security experts claim that the best internet security can be achieved by using the Tor, Mullvad, or LibreWolf web browsers, especially when used with a VPN. Sadly, these three web browsers are based on the Gecko (Mozilla) browser engine rather than on the Blink (Chromium) browser engine. And that makes them undesirable for use by web developers who should be using Chromium-based browsers for testing their code because of browser market share, and because Chromium-based browsers have superior dev tools.

But a lot depends on your level of paranoia and your need for extremely secure internet security. The Electronic Frontier Foundation or EFF has created a website that tests how well your web browser is able to Cover Your Tracks. Essentially, it can test the relative security level of your web browser in terms of whether it blocks tracking ads and blocks invisible tracking, and whether your web browser has randomized fingerprinting, which is yet another method of protecting your anonymity on the internet. It can also provide you with a Default Report and a Detailed Report of everything it is able to extrapolate from the short test it performs on your web browser. We think that most of the data it shows you is TMI, but it can help you quickly determine if you should be adding an adblocker extension to your web browser, or not.

Adding an adblocker extension to your Chrome or Chromium-based web browser is one way to defeat the Cookie Monsters. We personally dislike seeing ads of any kind on any website. But we've found that uBlock Origin Lite is one of the best adblockers out there. Did we mention that it also blocks tracking cookies as well? Well, it does that too. So click the button below if you want to add uBlock Origin Lite to your Chrome or Chromium-based web browser.

uBlock Origin Lite

And while some will argue that everything Google creates is evil, we believe that Google's only true crime is declaring that ChromeOS is a true operating system. Otherwise, Google has changed the world with many new innovations that are now widely-accepted, and oftentimes free to the general public. After all, you can pay a fortune to use proprietary fonts on your websites. Just take a look at Adobe if you want to see capitalistic evil at work. The costs of using their Adobe Fonts Library, and their Adobe Stock Photos Library, plus the associated monthly or yearly costs for using their Creative Cloud software can be exorbitant. Adobe claims that using their Fonts Library is free, but read the fine print before you start developing using the Adobe Fonts Library. Then, compare that cost against using Google Fonts for free, and you can redefine your definition of evil. Anyway, this should help convince you that Google is not your greatest enemy. And that should be more than enough convincing information on this subject.