14 DAY TRIAL // When you decide that Internet Explorer is not enough and you want to get a replacement for it, or an additional browser to use from time to time, the available choices are so many, that you can spend a day or two just to find out about them. If you plan to check all your results and see how they behave...you'd better don't, because we are here to do that for you!
I wasn't expecting any interesting release in the field of Web browsers these days, but it seems I was wrong again. After all, there is a huge amount of people using such a program, and the way Web browsers keep popping up shouldn't be so amazing...but let's get to the point. What do we have here today?
My target is not a standalone browser, but a frontend to Internet Explorer. A good one, it seems - at least at first sight - but let's get closer and find out more, shall we?
This program has a simple name, E2, its current version is 2.0 build 900 and the installation kit has 4.4MB in size. Setting up the program is a child's play, and when it comes to pricing...what pricing? E2 is completely free for use at home, work, on the road, in the air, wherever you may go and whatever the purpose of its use may be. Now you can see the big picture, but I won't leave before getting some details for you first.
The interface is very good, although a bit confusing sometimes. E2 is a skinnable application, which is great, but you only get the default skin coming with the program. Of course that additional ones can be downloaded from the Internet, but I like to have as much as possible inside the setup packages, and I'm sure I am not asking too much if I want two or three skins more...
E2 is a tabbed browser, of course. I can't imagine a decent browser these days without tabbed browsing, but my cutie here is much more than that. What do you think about having a media manager and player included into your Web browser? To be honest, I am not crazy about that. In fact, my first contact with these features inside E2 wasn't that pleasant, because it took me some minutes to figure out what and how, but once you get used to it...this rocks! The first thing to do is go to the View menu, and then enable the Media Control Center item, located in the Tool Bars and Menu area. The lists that can be managed in this program include Web links, Web-Snippets and, of course, image, video and audio lists.
Moving on, what do you think about mouse gestures? While the media center may not be interesting for me yet, I discovered the mouse gestures' benefits a while ago, and I won't change my mind any time soon. Another white ball goes into the pot for E2!
Page translation? Yes, sir! Go to the Tools menu, choose the Translate item and then check the available options. Does this seem enough for you? If not, you can add your own translators!
What else should you expect from this program? First of all, speed. Then add some reliability and decent system requirements (on a 256MB RAM system, the producers claim to have opened 400 sites at a time! Of course I wasn't able to check that, but for 10 opened sites and an audio playlist with over 200 items, the memory eaten by E2 was around 90MB) and you get the result: a very good Web browser that aims for the top.
The Good
E2 is a very good alternative to any browser you might have, even if everything that you want is to changing your view, but also if you want to add something new. This program is easy to use, reliable, and above everything, it's fast. Oh! And it's also free. Good enough for you?
The Bad
The worse thing about this program is that the Help file is still under development; other than that, I would like to see it using less system resources, because you know...no matter how things are, they can always get better!
The Truth
E2 Browser is a pleasant experience and I am sure that many people will find it at least useful, if not the ONE to have. I am always in a hunt for new good Web browsers, and I can only say that I am proud of today's capture. Take your time and check it out, E2 is worth your time!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
