Now, I’m not one to force (or even encourage) people to change their web browser. It’s a matter of familiarity and personal choice. I’ve always liked Firefox and used it in preference to Internet Explorer. But when I worked at a certain big pharma corporate, it was IE or nothing.

<old geek>
This could be because I had always used Netscape (well, Mosaic briefly when t’interweb was first invented) and watched it wither and die under the onslaught of IE. Sob.
</old geek>

However, today I saw first hand a good reason to change. I was trying to sort out a customer’s PC that was running very slowly when accessing his email. He uses Sky as his provider and accesses email via their website. Rather than just blame Sky, I asked him to try accessing his email on his partner’s laptop. No problems there, her laptop was a lot faster.

Both running Internet Explorer, both accessing the same mailbox, one significantly faster. I suggested uninstalling IE8 on his machine, in case it was that (IE8 has been going out as a high-priority update on Microsoft update – tut tut). But he didn’t have IE8 installed. So I suggested he install it.

Not clutching at straws at all, then.

Still no luck. Then a flash of inspiration. Sky email is actually provided by Google, so why not try that flash new browser, Google Chrome?

Now, bearing in mind I was doing all this in a remote support session, which makes things slow, I nearly fell off my chair when I saw the difference.

Accessing Sky Email with Google Chrome was fantastic, so if you have the first I recommend the second. I just don’t recommend the first…

However, I will be sticking with Firefox a little longer, for reasons I will explain another time.