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Although some posts degenerated into tech fights, it was very encouraging to see our local tech-community being heavily involved with online posts and inbox messages.
The future of technology is moving away from our traditional operating system standards, to being application and web based.
We are seriously but tardily moving into the cloud computing age where only the web browser you are using matters the most, more than the operating systems.

This is the reality which the IT giants Microsoft, Apple and Linux are all adjusting to while new great contenders like Google are poised to lead with Google OS and Google apps already dominating the industry.
Crowning a web browser king is no easy process, as there are many vital aspects to consider.

The process is quiet technical and I will do my best to spare you much of the technicality but all the same the technicalities are inevitable and analysing them will make this report balanced. Just to bring you up to speed we took the test on a core i5 series processor, 4gig ram memory and squeaky new windows 7.
The web browsers were all fresh with no add-ons or extensions on them to ascertain real individual performance.

For perfect connectivity I had to choose only wired internet connection for its stability.
We understand some extensions can impact web browsers differently, disadvantaging other browsers complicating the tests.
In this test we are pitting only the giant four web browsers against each other for the battle of supremacy and we will not be including safari web browser, an apple

product since the test will be exclusive to Windows 7-based web browsers.
Currently, all browsers are heavily sharpening their latest editions and as I was writing this article, I was using these versions for the test — Internet Explorer 10 pre release, Firefox 13.0, Chrome 19 and Opera 12.

Web browsers come on completely different engines with Firefox being GECKO based, Google chrome WEBKIT based while Internet Explorer runs on TRIDENT and opera on PRESTO.
This difference is probably the main reason why web browsers will always operate differently producing various results, yet all achieving the same goal.

Speed Test Page and Load Times
Firefox seriously improved this time around, but not enough to catch Opera, while Chrome remains agonisingly slow once again on start up.
After start-up Firefox took the lead while operating with a 79 percent score, Opera 65 percent, Chrome 60 percent and Internet Explorer 39 percent.

When tested with all nine tabs loaded Firefox and Opera completely smoked the others, since they only loaded one or two tabs at a time, while Chrome and IE tried to load all the other tabs at once.
When initially fired, Firefox only loads the current tab you are viewing with the pinned tabs, it will subsequently load other tabs when you click them saving on memory allocation constraints making just the tab on demand be prioritised.

We only tested this part of cold booting, just from the time the browser is fired up to the time where a user is able to start typing a web address as most users do not even wait for their home page to first load.
Chrome is much more efficient when you have a slow connection, definitely the main reason why it will remain a darling of many in Zimbabwe with shared bandwidth contentions.

Featuristic Browser
Opera through its individual profiles allows multiple users to run the same copy independently.
This smart feature makes it possible for a user to open different Gmail or Facebook accounts on the same web browser instead of running different web browser.
Opera also takes the lead with its new built-in apps that use your                      webcam straight from the web browser.

The upgrade also comes with lots of other extras including running plug-ins in a separate process, faster page loading and rendering, 64-bit Windows and Mac support, and support for more languages.

After previously announcing the Firefox release, I was disappointed to learn that it won’t automatically update to its new improved Firefox 13, rather it needs you to manually change settings via file setting, check for updates, otherwise by default you will not move to the next new editions.

The best browser for HTML5
Almost every good browser supports the structure of HTML5 flawlessly, but when it comes to full standards support Chrome and Firefox leads by a significant margin.

According to the excellent Caniuse.com, Firefox and Chrome scored 89 percent for HTML5 standards support, with Safari at 78 percent, Opera 74 percent and IE9 52 percent. If you add CSS support into the equation the scores are 87 percent for Firefox and Chrome, 83 percent for Safari, 75 percent for Opera and 59 percent for IE.

Security, JavaScript, Flash and CSS
Internet Explorer is leading in privacy with the “do not track feature” while other browsers choose to focus on online security, patches and vulnerabilities, however they all matched up to the standards.

Chrome scored a first here giving us security from endless flood of Adobe security problems with a built in adobe reader.
They are myriad of ways to put your web browser to the test, needless to say Acid 3 test does not check web browser performance.
Instead it is a compliance test created by the Web Standards to check how web browsers correctly render complex series of instructions.
For intensive tests on actual performance levels, there are some benchmarks used for more accurate assessments.

Probably the most popular benchmark is Sunspider. In the Sunspider JavaScript benchmarks Firefox left its rivals in the dust, storming through the tests in a hugely impressive 190.4ms followed by Internet Explorer (251.9ms), Opera (253.3ms) and Chrome (291.0ms).
Peacekeeper is another Online speed test by Futuremark, mainly using rendering, mathematical and memory operations.

Google Chrome has developed its own tools to test web browser, coined V8 where Chrome commands an outstanding lead.
Mozilla Firefox also creates its own, called Dormaeo, which is more than a JavaScript test Tool, and a DOM.
Ironically, Firefox took a lead too under this performance test. These benchmarks may be viewed as only favourable to the manufacturer’s standards but the other web browsers have not yet raised any objections so they still stand as good industrial benchmarks.

Firefox and Google chrome for a long time have been disappointing in the way they handle the flash application. 
Chrome will pop up errors asking you to please wait or kill the pages before the whole browser completely knocks off.
Opera scores a first with Internet Explorer coming second. Firefox and Chrome finish last respectively.

And the winner is . . .
Frankly, a lot boils down to what you are comfortable with and which features are most important to you.
As we have proved some browsers are good in terms of speed, some security, privacy or html5 handling.
Nevertheless, some browsers performed above average scoring a first in most tests and the crown goes to Google chrome as the best web browser for 2012.

Firefox comes second with Internet Explorer closely in third position. Opera is in fourth position but this does reflect that it is weak since it also scored a first in most tests.

Depending with what you really expect from a web browser, every one of these browsers scored a first so what really counts is your personal choice after all.
The erstwhile giant turned mediocre trademark Internet Explorer has somersaulted back with some good fixes into the browser competition, facing the heat from Chrome and Firefox, with its newest version posing a real threat.
To give back credit where its due, there were some very constructive contributions and posts from local software developers and IT enthusiasts like Brighton

Mukorera, Tafadzwa Bvekerwa, Plot Mhako, Joseph Chatindo, Batsirai Musumhi, Charles Zulu, Philip Mesa, and The General among others who made these polls very objective.

• The writer is a computing specialist at http://tech.co.zw, follow on Twitter @TechnoMagZw Facebook Page www.facebook.com/TechnoMagZw email: [email protected] [email protected]