Back in the Seventies and Eighties I founded and ran several Fleet Street photo agencies specialising in stock images of celebrities from pop stars to politicians. These were syndicated to the National and International press and Television. These days I am active in the Microstock world and this blog charts my journey as well as, hopefully, providing inspiration and ideas to others. Image buyers should also find this blog useful with links to my portfolios and regular updates on new uploads. Unless otherwise stated all images are my copyright and may not be reproduced or copied. Comments are very welcome but will be reviewed before publication. Enjoy your visit. Regards, David.

Saturday 28 July 2012

One browser or two?

Like a large chunk of the world, my computer came pre-loaded with Microsoft software which, by default, left me using Internet Explorer to access the internet. Generally it has worked just fine for me but on the odd occasion I was getting a stream of "Internet Explorer Cannot Display The Web Page" messages. I also found one or two sites where I just wasn't able to access certain parts due to incompatability.
This led me to think maybe I should have an alternative browser installed. Not being a computer expert I had concerns that this might cause problems with clashes between the two browsers. However, I eventually took the obvious step and did some research on the internet. What I found was that not only would there be no problems with having an extra browser installed but actually it was highly desirable. As one article pointed out - what happens if you cannot access the internet from your usual browser? You then have no way of downloading an alternative. Another actually claimed to have 16 different browsers installed. Apart from the fact I didn't realise that many existed I still cannot see why you would need to go to that extreme.
Now reassured, I went ahead and (based on personal recommendations) installed Google Chrome as my alternative browser. It only took a few minutes to install and there have been no problems at all. What has proved facinating is how different the various stock photo sites look when accessed by an alternative browser. Various features are in different places and some I couldn't access before now work - such as the Keyword Trends feature at Shutterstock.
In conclusion, I am glad I made the decision and though I still use IE as my usual browser there have been a number of times that I have switched to the alternative.
As I said before, I am not a computer expert so, as a health warning here, please do your own research on this and check out the various browsers available before making any decisions.
Regards, David.

2 comments:

StarGirl said...

I love where you say "What has proved facinating is how different the various stock photo sites look when accessed by an alternative browser."... What most people who exclusively use IE don't even realise is how supremely broken their view of the web really is. Opening your eyes to a new browser (and ultimately leaving IE behind) is a revolutionary change to the 'average web user'. :)

David Fowler said...

Thanks for your comment Bob. I sort of knew that sites were optimised to work with different browsers, but I hadn't expected the big differences in appearance and even layout. Regards, David.