Browsing For Apples

Entrepreneur, Nov, 2000 by Cassandra Cavanah

Thanks to the Macs revived popularity, showers of software--including browsers from Microsoft and Netscape--have finally ended the drought.

The iMac and, more recently, the G4 Cube have taken the doldrums out of Macintosh sales and motivated software developers to finally create Mac versions of popular software programs. The truth of the matter is that without the invigorating sales of these new machines, the Mac platform might have withered and died. Macintosh users had been suffering with older versions of popular programs, watching on enviously while their Windows-using counterparts are showered with more and more upgrades.

Thankfully for Mac lovers, development for the Mac OS appears to be on the upswing. Case in point: Microsoft designed a new version of its popular Internet Explorer software with bells and whistles that can't even be found in the Windows counterpart yet--a phenomenon that hasn't emerged from the Microsoft trenches in some time. Netscape 6 also takes major pains to address Mac users' needs.

Both these applications show their maturity. As the functionality of the Web continues to flourish, so have Web browsers. No longer can they simply be termed "browsers"--instead, think more along the lines of "Web enablers," as they enable users to get the most out of their time spent surfing on the Internet.

At any rate, surfers hitting the Web using a Mac should appreciate the new look and feel offered by these programs. And, of course, because both Micro soft and Netscape deliver their browsers for free, there's no reason not to upgrade to one (or even both) of these programs. For the price of the download time, both these programs are well worth taking a look at. In fact, the only possible reason not to up-grade might be because your hardware can't support the software.

EXPLORATION TIME

The most recent upgrade to Internet Explorer (IE) promises to change the face of browsing the Web--for Mac users, anyway. IE 5.0 is being highly praised as the first browser to support established, but until now ignored, Web standards to guarantee proper viewing of Web pages. This means Web designers who follow the standards can now be assured that users of IE 5.0 will be able to properly render their Web sites.

Macintosh users have long suffered under a common screen resolution conflict when viewing Web pages authored in Windows (the bulk of the pages out there), a problem that makes all type faces appear very tiny on the Macintosh screen. With IE 5.0, users will be able to adjust their browser's resolution to match their screen resolution--a feature that should ease the strain on your eyeballs. The interface itself is also more Mac-centric and even offers customizable color options so that aesthetically minded users can match the color of their tool bars and icons to the color of their iMacs.

A couple of really cool new IE tools that have made it into the Mac version of Explorer include the Auction Manager and the Internet Scrapbook. (These are features Windows users should expect in the near term.) If you're an auction die-hard, you'll want to upgrade to IE 5.0 to use Auction Manager to track your items, bids and time remaining on auctions at such popular auction sites as eBay, Amazon.com and Yahoo!.

Internet Scrapbook is one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" tools. How many times have you wanted to save a picture of a Web site to refer back to later? Wouldn't it be fantastic to take a snapshot of an e-commerce receipt to store for later viewing? Or how about capturing the Web site that displays your latest product or publicity photos and including it in your scrapbook? From an icon found on the tool bar, you will be able to access and organize these items in IE 5.0.

In order to run IE 5.0, you'll need a PowerPC processor, MacOS 7.6.1 or thereabouts, QuickTime 3.0, at least 8MB RAM and 12MB of hard-drive space. The latest version of Outlook Express, a less robust version of Outlook for managing your e-mail, is also available for download, but you'll need another 15MB of hard-drive space and MacOS 8.1 or higher to run it.

THE NET NET

Netscape 6 is available for both the Mac and PC and takes slightly less advantage of your hard-drive space, only eating into 7.5MB. But with the abundance of storage found in today's computers, download time is a much bigger issue than space. Netscape also complies with the standards for Web design and even foreshadows support for Linux and Web appliances.

One of the biggest additions to Netscape 6 is My Sidebar, a window that follows you around as you search Web sites and connects you to other items of interest. My Sidebar comes with more than 400 tabs you can utilize to keep track of your stocks, news and calendar as you search the Web. Because Netscape was bought by AOL, this browser is perfect for delivering the same instant messaging capabilities as found in the parent company's online services. With Netscape 6, you can use My sidebar to access your Instant Messaging Buddy list, which lets you keep track of your buddies been they're online and communicate with them in real time.