What Makes Your ‘Favorite’ Browser Your Favorite?

When Techgage first launched in early 2005, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer totally dominated our usage charts, with Mozilla’s Firefox in a somewhat distant second. A mere couple of years later, Firefox’s usage sky-rocketed and first matched, then surpassed, Internet Explorer usage. Currently, there are almost twice as many Firefox users on our site than Internet Explorer users.

When Google’s Chrome hit the scene in late 2008, it didn’t take long before that browser started to creep into our charts also, and as it currently stands, even it has surpassed Internet Explorer usage. In the past 30 days, Firefox has accounted for 42% of our readers, Chrome for 24%, Internet Explorer for 22%, Opera for 5.5% and Safari for 4.5%.

As time passes on, and these browser wars heat up, it’s clear that people care about one thing… a good browser. My question is, what is the reason or reasons you prefer your browser over any other out there? Internet Explorer user? Why? Chrome user? Why? On the same token, is there another browser that’s pulling at you, but does something so horribly wrong that you just can’t make the jump?

The sad truth of my decision is that I don’t have a “favorite” per se, because I find a painful fault with all of them. I currently use Chrome because of its sheer speed, but it drives me up the wall when certain websites or site features don’t work as they should (our vBulletin WYSIWYG as a quick example). I’m hoping that with the Firefox 4 launch, I’ll begin using it again since I first switched over to Chrome last summer, as up to this point, it’s proven to be the best well-rounded browser out there (for me).

So, I’m not the most devout browser user out there, but maybe you are. What keeps you with the browser you’re with? Spill the beans in our comment thread!