Most of us usually have our own favourite web browsers that we use to access the world wide web. Each of these browsers have their own characteristics and features that made us love them. For November 2008, 49.13% of TMS Network's blog visitors use Mozilla Firefox to visit this blog, 39.2% uses Internet Explorer, 5.13% uses Opera, 3.33% uses Google Chrome and 1.7% uses Safari. As for me, I like to take my favourite web browser in my pendrive so I can use it if I go to internet cafe or at work. This allows me to use the browser with my own settings, addons and any customizations that I've done. In this post, I will list a few portable web browser that we can install and run from a portable USB drive.

Opera@USB

Since this is my favourite web browser, I will start with Opera. The portable version of Opera has the same features as the normal desktop version, surf the web, write emails, or use IRC. In fact, with Opera Link, you can synchronize your bookmark, notes, history and speed dial. Opera Link works very well with the portable version of Opera. You can expect it to be functional as the desktop version. However, the portable version cannot run directly from network (using \\192.168.1.10\Opera Portable\ path for example). You need to mount the directory as network drive first.

One of the features that I love in Opera is its mouse gestures. The gestures that I use most is right click + right/left which enables me to go Back and Forward a web page. Ever since I migrate to Flock (Firefox based web browser) I somehow miss those features.

FireGestures is a great Firefox add-on that allows you to have the Opera-like mouse gestures in Firefox. It works outside of the box without the need to change any settings. If you are someone that love to tweak a software to its full potential, here are the features of FireGestures:

While Firefox 3 will arive soon tomorrow, 17th June 2008, Flock 2.0 beta 1 is also available for test drive. Flock 2.0 will be based on Firefox 3 technology. Flock is a web browser that specializes in providing social networking and other Web 2.0 features built into its interface. The browser is built on Mozilla’s Firefox codebase.

However, I experienced random crashes with Flock 2.0 beta, especially when organizing or dealing with Favorites (Windows XP SP3). I also lost my bookmark during the update. So, better backup your configuration first if you are planning to test Flock 2.0 beta. It is still in beta stage. Just a small cosmetic change in Flock 2.0 beta.

Flock 2.0 beta is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

[Flock 2.0 beta]

I am actually a heavy tab user, usually every time I am browsing the Internet, I opened average 10 tabs and maybe more. My desktop PC is running on 2.66Ghz Pentium 4 which is quite slow for a heavy tab user like me. I’ve tested a lot of browsers that doesn’t require a lot of resources even when opening lots of tabs. So far, I found that Flock 1.2.1 is very suitable for me. Flock is a browser with Web 2.0 features, built on Firefox. Flock 1.2.1 is based on Firefox 2.

Need to bypass Megaupload Country Slot Limit? Getting tired with "All download slots assigned to your country (Malaysia) are currently in use. Please try again in a few hours or install the Megaupload Toolbar for immediate access - with the toolbar installed, there are no more slot limitations for you!" error? If you are using Firefox or Flock, you can download Megaupload SX addon to bypass the slot limit.

New stable version of Flock 1.1, the social web browser is now available for download. Flock is a web browser built on Mozilla’s Firefox codebase. Flock integrates various blog, news aggregation, and social networking sites including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Blogger, and others.

New Features in 1.1