What browser do you prefer? According to w3schools.com, which tracks browser usage of people interested in Web technologies and hence more likely to try alternative tools, as of April this year, 38.3 per cent of us preferred Google's Chrome, 35.8 per cent went with Mozilla's Firefox, and 18.3 per cent were still using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (Apple's Safari and Opera were trailing way behind). Over the last year IE and Firefox have seen their shares decrease and only Chrome has gained share.

A change in the way browser usage is calculated led to a decline in web browser market share for Google Chrome, which experienced its second market share slip this year after growing steadily throughout 2011.

Facebook Timeline currently is rolling out to all users worldwide, and--whether you like it or not--the new default profile layout will be hitting your Facebook account in the coming weeks.

Google Chrome 15 is the most popular web browser in the world overtaking Internet Explorer 8, according to web analytics firm StatCounter. Chrome 15 just barely beat out its Microsoft rival for the first time between November 21 and 27 with 23.63 percent of the global browser market share compared to IE8's 23.5 percent. Mozilla's Firefox 8 trailed behind at a distant third with 12.12 percent of worldwide usage during the same time period.

Many cynical users assume Web browsers do little more than dutifully render HTML. The content is the most important part, they say, so it makes little difference which browser you use.

Apps are all about choice. And nowhere is choice more appealing than in the world of Web browsing. In the early days of smartphones, users had no choice but to use the browser that came installed with the operating system, but now we have multiple choices: This week saw the release of Mozilla's Firefox 4 for Mobile, and Opera's Mini 6 and Mobile 11. Both browsers look to expand on the bundled mobile browsers' functionality by adding easy-to-use features and social network sharing.

Opera Software has embedded into its Web browser a beta set of tools, collectively called Dragonfly, that can help developers find errors in their complex Web pages, the company announced Monday.

Opera devotees will be glad to hear that the browser is coming to tablets running Android and Windows 7, with the same features of its mobile software on other platforms.

If you're a regular PCWorld reader, you may have noticed the Browser Blowout story we posted last week. In it, I looked at various aspects of the major Web browsers, including features, interface, security, and performance.

It came as a surprise to almost everyone when Apple approved the Opera Mini Browser app for its App Store. It is a competing browser for Apple's own Safari--which is the default browser of the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad--and it is not built on the Apple-ordained Webkit platform.

For browser fans, this is the best of times.

Opera has always been packed with features, but it has yet to garner the same kind of publicity that Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome enjoy. And that's a shame, because version 10 of the venerable Web browser adds a slew of clever features that anyone who surfs the Web will welcome.

Opera Software lit up the blogosphere today with the debut of its Opera Unite, a collaborative technology that embeds a Web server in its Opera 10 browser, which is still in beta.

Opera has long been an underrated, feature-rich browser worthy of greater attention and a larger market share. It runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, mobile phones, Nintendo gaming systems, and other now historical operating systems. Like all of the leading browsers, it supports Java and JavaScript, and its impressive, growing feature set pushes beyond today's standards such as tabbed browsing to include the likes of voice-controlled browsing, e-mail, and instant messaging. Opera has many unique security features too, and the granularity of its security controls easily beats that of most rivals, the exception being Microsoft's Internet Explorer.