Anyone who uses the internet uses a browser even though most people couldn’t tell you what it is. For the record, it’s the software – usually ready installed when you buy your computer – that enables you to view web pages. About 90% of new computers come with Internet Explorer software as standard, but it’s not the only option, nor is it always the best.

A new generation of browsers, which can be downloaded free of charge, offer features such as tabbed browsing – keeping many web pages open simultaneously in one window – and the ability to keep track of news headlines from favourite websites without having to visit them.

Remember, you can also download several browsers and use the one that’s most useful for whatever you’re doing.

BEGINNER’S TIPS

Some readers will be using Internet Explorer (IE) 6. It is pretty basic but still there are some tricks you can perform. For example, did you know you can block the pop-up ads that appear on certain sites by going to Tools and clicking on Pop-up Blocker?

To open a link to a web page in a new window without losing the one you are on is easy. Either right click the link and choose Open in New Window in the pop-up box, or hold the shift key down while left clicking the link. See tinyurl.com/l3893 for a list of tips.

BROWSER OPTIONS

The new browsers offer far more powerful features than IE6.

Downloading them is easy: simply head to the addresses below and click Install. An icon for the browser should appear on your desktop – double click on it to open it up.

The first new contender is Firefox (www.getfirefox.com ), which is less likely to crash than IE and offers a vast library of easy-to-install add-ons. If it does crash, Firefox remembers the pages you were looking at and takes you there when you restart the browser.

Microsoft has released a new version of IE, called Internet Explorer 7 (www.microsoft.com/ie7 ). It has many of the features of Firefox and is probably the most versatile browser in terms of compatibility with websites. It comes loaded on the latest PCs or you can download it free of charge.

Finally, Opera (www.opera.com ) is the most feature-packed of the three and even includes an e-mail program so you can read your latest messages without having to open Outlook.

USING A BROWSER

All three of these browsers offer tabbed browsing. This lets you open several web pages in one window, and it’s the single most handy tool for quick surfing.

Say you’re looking at one page and you want to open up another, you click on File, then New Tab. A new web page will then open in the same window as the previous one. You can then flick between the two by clicking on tabs at the top of the window.

For a guide to using Firefox, see tinyurl.com/2yo46y . If you notice a little orange symbol appearing in the address bar while visiting a website in Firefox, this means the site has an RSS news feed you can subscribe to. Feeds are a great way of checking the newest material on a website without having to visit it. Instead, headline bulletins are sent to your browser. To subscribe to the feed, click on the orange button and then click Subscribe Now.

There are excellent tutorials for Opera at www.opera.com/support/tutorials . Opera’s most innovative feature is Speed Dial, a quick way to access your favourite websites.

The first time you open a new tab in Opera you are presented with nine empty boxes. In each of these you can select the address of a favoured site. Then each time you open another new tab these nine options appear on the page and you can go straight to any of them by clicking on the link.

Other features include Hotclick. If you double click a word on a web page, or select some text and right click it, the Hotclick menu pops up. You can now choose different actions for the word, such as translating it or looking it up in a dictionary.

The best guide to features on IE7 is on the instructional website About.com (browsers.about.com/od/ internetexplorertutorials ). Among other tips it explains how to use a tool that enables you to search using various engines, such as Google or Yahoo!, without having to go to their pages.

ADD-ONS

Add-ons are mini applications that you can install on the browser to power up your surfing experience. Firefox has the widest range and to see what’s available open Firefox and click Tools, Add-Ons and then click Get Extensions in the bottom right-hand corner of the box. This takes you to a page where you will find hundreds of add-ons.

For example, Foxmarks keeps your bookmarks synchronised across your different computers. So, once you have set up Foxmarks, if you add a new favourite to your office computer, it is automatically added to your home one the next time you start your browser.

FoxyTunes lets you control your media player (such as iTunes or Windows Media Player) from within the browser, so you don’t have to keep switching applications to skip to the next track. FoxyTunes is also available on IE7. You can find more IE7 add-ons by clicking Tools, Manage Add-Ons.

Opera’s add-ons, known as Widgets, sit on your desktop rather than in the browser. These enable you to listen to music from online radio stations, play mini games or simply show the time in the form of an analogue clock. There are dozens at widgets.opera.com .