Back in the 1990s, when netscape Communications Corp. and Microsoft Corp. were battling over which browser would be used to search and view the Internet, web browsing wasn’t such a big thing. It was still a separate activity from day-to-day computing.

These days, though, the web is where we all live – at work, at home and on the road. The web browser has become the most integral computing tool that many of us have. And there are many of them available.

So, which browser should you be using?

Tools such as StatCounter track the global statistics for browsers on a monthly basis by monitoring which browsers people are using to visit various websites. Google Inc.‘s Chrome browser tops the listings for browsers used on desktop and tablet operating systems, with a whopping 43.66% of worldwide market share as of March of this year, compared with 22.58% for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. That must be humbling for Microsoft, which once upon a time dominated the market for browsers with Internet Explorer.

Mozilla Corp. lags not far behind Microsoft, garnering 18.75% of worldwide market share with its Firefox browser. Apple Inc.‘s Safari limps along with 9.91%. Opera Software Group‘s Opera once was well known on the mobile scene, but has relatively little market share these days.

– What platforms are you using?

When choosing a browser, a lot will come down to the platforms that you’re using. For example, if you’re mainly an iPad or a Mac user, then Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is off the table for you.

If you’re a Windows user, then you can access all of the browsers more or less -other than Apple’s Safari, which that company stopped updating for Windows in 2012. Apple and Microsoft just don’t seem interested in supporting each others’ platforms. If you’re using Windows 8 in tablet mode, then Internet Explorer 11 is the clear winner, as it is explicitly designed to support the touch-screen interface. Firefox dumped its version of the Windows 8 browser designed to support the touch-screen interface in March.

Google’s Chrome will run on Windows 8 with support for the touch-screen interface, but only if the laptop/tablet being used supports hardware acceleration; and even then, it will support only the “traditional desktop” mode.

One great thing about Chrome is its ability to synchronize your open tabs across multiple devices. So, with this feature, tabs open on your Windows or Mac machine can be opened on your iPad, for example.

Some people like their browsers just so, and will happily tweak settings to suit their own needs. Firefox wins out here, as it has options to configure a host of settings under the hood, accessed using its “about:config” command. Firefox also is well served with extensions – small, downloadable add-on apps designed to plug straight into the browser.

In this respect, Firefox is equalled by Chrome, which has its own large array of add-ons designed to extend its functionality. But Chrome’s other customization features are not as broad.

The other two players in this race are sorely lacking when it comes to customization. Internet Explorer 11 has an add-on gallery, but it’s sparsely populated. And Safari has practically no options for add-ons at all.

– Privacy

On the privacy front, Mozilla has at least one advantage over its competitors: it doesn’t have a need for customer data, as it’s a non-profit foundation that doesn’t sell any products or services.

At the other end of the spectrum, Google’s business model involves using your information to target you for its advertisers as much as possible. Having said that, Chrome does offer a range of privacy options via its “advanced settings” menu – and Google maintains a privacy policy.

Apple and Microsoft both have strong privacy policies, and Opera says it won’t hand over your data when you’re conducting web searches.

– Security

Privacy and security are related but separate. The latter is important, given the amount of nefarious activity on the web. For many cybercriminals, the browser is the first point of attack.

Firefox fares worst at cybersecurity. During the most recent Pwn2Own – an annual hacking contest for security researchers held in Vancouver – Firefox was found to be vulnerable to four separate security attacks. The other three browsers also were compromised, but not as many times.

One of the reasons why Firefox may not be as strong in the security category is because it isn’t “sandboxed.” Other browsers have the ability to stop certain kinds of applications from doing anything to your system outside of the browser. That ability makes it difficult for malicious websites to influence your computer, for example.

But other browsers aren’t immune, either. Sandbox bypasses were among the exploits that Pwn2Own hackers used against Firefox’s competitors.

– Voice search

There seems to be a reason why Google’s Chrome is topping the charts. It’s fast and smooth to use, and it is available across all platforms – unlike at least two of its competitors. Opera now is based on the same underlying engine as Chrome, creating less of an impetus to switch.

Chrome keeps adding new features ahead of its competition, one of them being voice-activated search. For a while now, Chrome has enabled spoken searches. More recently, you have been able to ask your Chrome browser other things, too, such as “Set a reminder to call Janet at noon.” This is making Chrome increasingly like Siri (Apple’s online digital personal assistant), and the latest version of Chrome allows you to install a beta extension that enables you to do so without even clicking a button.

Before browsers became standards-compliant – back when Version 6 of Internet Explorer dominated the web – it was a lot easier to make browser choices. But these days, they all perform relatively well and include many of the same features.

But for general cross-device availability, smooth performance, look and feel, and general ease of use, we’ll go with what the market has already decided: Chrome has the edge.

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