Web browsers I have known, 1996-2012

Jason Kottke recently recapped all of the browsers he used as his default for the past 18 years. It sounded like fun, so I’m going to shamelessly steal the idea and list out my default browsers for the past 16 years (prior to 1996, I was stuck in the dark ages of dialup AOL – but once I went away to college and discovered the joys of T1/T3 connections, my browsing career started in earnest, so that’s when I’m starting this list).

• 1996 – Netscape Navigator 3 – This was pretty much the uncontested king of browsers at the time, but it’s reign would be short. I had a copy of IE3 (I think?) on my computer too, but I almost never used it…
• 1997-1998 – Netscape Communicator 4 – Basically Netscape Navigator 4, but the Communicator was a whole suite of applications which appealed to me at the time. I used it for email and even to start playing with some HTML editing (though I would eventually abandon everything but the browser from this suite). IE4 did come out sometime in this timeframe and I used it occasionally, but I think I stuck with NN4 way longer than I probably should have.
• 1999-2000 – Internet Explorer 5 – With the release of IE5 and the increasing issues surrounding NN4, I finally jumped ship to Microsoft. I was never particularly comfortable with IE though, and so I was constantly looking for alternatives and trying new things. I believe early builds of Mozilla were available, and I kept downloading the updates in the hopes that it would allow me to dispense with IE, but it was still early in the process for Mozilla. This was also my first exposure to Opera, which at the time wasn’t that remarkable (we’re talking version 3.5 – 4 here) except that, as usual, they were ahead of the curve on tabbed browsing (a mixed blessing, as monitor resolutions at the time weren’t great). Opera was also something you had to pay for at the time, and a lot of sites didn’t work in Opera. This would all change at the end of 2000, though, with the release of Opera 5.
• 2001 – Opera 5 – This browser changed everything for me. It was the first “free” Opera browser available, although the free version was ad-supported (quite annoying, but it was easy enough to get rid of the ads). The thing that was revolutionary about this browser, though, was mouse gestures. It was such a useful feature, and Opera’s implementation was (and quite frankly, still is) the best, smoothest implementation of the functionality I’ve seen. At this point, I was working at a website, so for work, I was still using IE5 and IE6 as my primary browser (because at the time, they represented something like 85-90% of the traffic to our site). I was also still experimenting with the various Mozilla-based browsers at the time as well, but Opera was my default for personal browsing. Of course, no one codes for Opera, so there were plenty of sites that I’d have to fire up IE for (this has always been an issue with Opera)
• 2002-2006 – Opera 6/7/8/9 – I pretty much kept rolling with Opera during this timeframe. Again, for my professional use, IE6/IE7 was still a must, but in 2004, Firefox 1.0 launched, so that added another variable to the mix. I wasn’t completely won over by the initial Firefox offerings, but it was the first new browser in a long time that I thought had a bright future. It also provided a credible alternative for when Opera crapped out on a weirdly coded page. However, as web standards started to actually be implemented, Opera’s issues became fewer as time went on…
• 2007 – Firefox 2/Opera 9 – It was around this time that Firefox started to really assert itself in my personal and professional usage. I still used Opera a lot for personal usage, but for professional purposes, Firefox was a simple must. At the time, I was embroiled in a year-long site redesign project for my company, and I was doing a ton of HTML/CSS/JavaScript development… Firefox was an indispensable tool at the time, mostly due to extensions like Firebug and the Web-Developer Toolbar. I suppose I should note that Safari first came to my attention at this point, mostly for troubleshooting purposes. I freakin’ hate that browser.
• 2008-2011 – Firefox/Opera – After 2007, there was a slow, inexorable drive towards Firefox. Opera kept things interesting with a feature they call Speed Dial (and quite frankly, I like that feature much better than what Chrome and recent versions of Firefox have implemented), but the robust and mature list of extensions for Firefox were really difficult to compete with, especially when I was trying to get stuff done. Chrome also started to gain popularity in this timeframe, but while I loved how well it loaded Ajax and other JavaScript-heavy features, I could never really get comfortable with the interface. Firefox still afforded more control, and Opera’s experience was generally better.
• 2012/Present – Firefox – Well, I think it’s pretty telling that I’m composing this post on Firefox. That being said, I still use Opera for simple browsing purposes semi-frequently. Indeed, I usually have both browsers open at all times on my personal computer. At work, I’m primarily using Firefox, but I’m still forced to use IE8, as our customers tend to still prefer IE (though the percentage is much less these days). I still avoid Safari like the plague (though I do sometimes need to troubleshoot and I suppose I do use Mobile Safari on my phone). I think I do need to give Chrome a closer look, as it’s definitely more attractive these days…

Well, there you have it. I do wonder if I’ll ever get over my stubborn love for Opera, a browser that almost no one but me uses. They really do manage to keep up with the times, and have even somewhat recently allowed Firefox and Chrome style extensions, though I think it’s a little too late for them. FF and Chrome just have a more robust community surrounding their development than Opera. I feel like it’s a browser fated to die at some point, but I’ll probably continue to use it until it does… So what browser do you use?