If I had to be honest, I would have to say that I’m a bit of a geek. I love electronics, gadgets, Macs, and the internet. My whole day revolves around the internet. My web browser is always open and I am always browsing. I have multiple browsers running sometimes.

Speaking of web browsers, I’ve been meaning to get on this soapbox for quite some time. Maybe it’s my geek tendencies pushing me, but I think it’s important to spread the news about the current state of web browsers. What web browser do you use? Chances are, you’re still using Internet Explorer, a once decent browser. There was a time when IE and Netscape were really the only things out there, but today it is a very different story.

If you are using IE (Internet Explorer), you are using probably the most outdated, limited web browser available. There are things called “web standards” that good web designers and good browsers abide by, but IE doesn’t. That’s why my blog may have looked messed up in the past. It wasn’t my fault. It was IE’s. Don’t ask me why (ask Microsoft), but it would be torture for me to have to return to that browser.

Why? Because I have discovered the “other” browsers out there that people don’t care to check out. I have seven web browsers in my arsenal. Not all of them are essential, but I keep them on hand in case they can serve a specific purpose.

The big kahuna still, in my mind, is Firefox. It’s free, open-source, blazing-fast, and has tabbed browsing, which a must-have for browsers. Firefox is my weapon of choice for most tasks, due to it’s “Web Developer” extension toolbar that provides me with a lot of tools I need for work. Firefox is quickly becoming a major competitor for Microsoft. If you had to have one browser, this is the one to have.

Opera isn’t a bad choice either. It used to cost money, but now it’s free. I like Opera just fine, but I haven’t become addicted to it like Firefox. I think the interface isn’t as user-friendly as it could be.

Flock is a new, open-source browser than emphasizes community, which is a pretty good idea. It has a built-in Flickr plugin, and blog editor. It also has great built-ins for del.icio.us, Technorati, and other tools. It’s built off of the same platform as Firefox, so it has the same benefits and features. I’m starting to use Flock more and more in order to plugin to my digital community better. I’m posting this entry from it’s built-in blog editor right now, in fact.

Camino is a Mac-only browser (while you’re thinking about switching browsers, why don’t you go ahead and switch to Mac too?) that gives Firefox some real competition. It’s built off of Safari’s platform (Apple’s browser) and is amazingly lightweight and very, very fast. It has almost everything Firefox has, and is my second-in-commmand browser of choice.

Shiira is a nifty Mac-only browser, too. It has a retractable sidebar that holds all your bookmarks, history, RSS reader, etc. out of the way until you need them. It also has some cool eye-candy if you’re into that sort of thing. Like a page-turning animation effect when you navigate. It also has a cool feature called “tab expose” which shows miniature versions of all of your open tabs all on the screen at the same time. Mac users know about this technique and how useful it is.

Sunrise Browser is another Mac-only browser (we get all the cool stuff) that can be useful for web designers/developers. It has a tool that lets you view webpages in different screen resolutions, and it has a feature that lets you view source code in the same window as the page you are sourcing. It also has a toggle bar for making the browser window transparent. It’s very cool. The interface is somewhat lacking though, and it also lacks tabbed browsing.

So, why go through all of this? Because my friends, IE is dead to me, and it should be dead to you too. Microsoft may make some improvements when it releases v.7 alongside the new Windows Vista, but seriously, do you really want to be that far behind the pack? I know it may be a strange and difficult transition for many of you, but trust me—you’ll thank me later. At least get Firefox, import your IE bookmarks (Firefox makes it easy!), download a few skins and extensions for it and use it for a couple of weeks. You’ll never turn back, I promise. You’ll also be doing us web designers a favor by giving yourself the ability to view websites as we intended.