14 DAY TRIAL // Each morning when I sit down in front of the computer for five minutes before eating, washing my face or anything else, I check my email and two or three websites. If my connection is down, then I skip this step, or maybe start the disk defragmenter...anyway, I am sure that at least 90% of the people who take a seat in front of a computer connected to the Internet open a Web browser before anything else. I don't want to change this, in fact, I don't find it unusual at all, and even more, the Web browsers programs family is one of my favorites...
The Web browsers' world is split into two large clans - Internet Explorer and others based on its page rendering engine, and the others. "The others" gang also comes in more flavors, but I will leave them aside today, because my target is an IE-based browser.
When I saw this program for the first time, I was sure that its name is "Acool Browser". Well, the name is just a bit different, but the reality is this: what we have here is a cool browser, and I am going to prove this to you right away.
Acoo Browser's last version is 1.51, its installation kit has 1.3MB in size and the setup process should be a piece of cake for most computer users, if not for all of them. Oh, yeah, it's freeware. You don't have to pay a single penny for it, and that's a good way to start your day. Now, let's see what we have here...
First stop is the interface, as usual. We have skins, we have a high customization level, and the interface is well organized and reminds me of Green Browser and Slim Browser. Of course that you can't be 100% original when the area you're in has its standards, but you can add a personal touch; and this program makes no exception to that. There are a lot of toolbars to display or hide, as you need, and the built in skins look great, but what can we find behind the mask?
Just like most IE-based browsers, Acoo Browser has a tabbed interface and supports the use of additional plugins to extend its functionality even further. The bad part about this is that you only get two plugins built in, one being just a sample plugin (an empty pane), and the other is used to kill or show all flying adds from the current page.
Getting back to the tabbed browsing, closing the opened ones is done just like in Maxthon, with a double click. The tabs can be shown above or below the page area, and the default setting is to have them at the bottom (strange choice, considering the up-down and left-right priority when we talk about interface design).
The mouse gestures part is well done here, and what I like most about them is the way they're represented into the Options area. What you'll find there are the gestures pictured as traffic signs, and all you have to do is choose an action for each of them. There are almost twenty of them here, but you can't setup new ones.
Translations, built in search toolbar, popup blocker and ad filtering- they are all here. Add groups, favorites, a built in RSS rendering engine, an ActiveX filter, HTML source viewer and many more that you'll have to discover for yourselves. While Acoo Browser is free and costs you a couple of minutes to start digging to the core, the pleasure of doing it is priceless.
The Good
Acoo Browser is fast, easy to use, highly customizable and allows you to extend its features and change its looks using additional plugins and skins. Even more, it's free and comes with a nice and useful User Manual built in!
The Bad
The only problem that I found with this program is, unfortunately, a big one - Acoo Browser freezes at random moments and you have to wait for it to regain its conscience in order to continue using it.
The Truth
It seems that the Web browsers' pool still has a lot to give, and Acoo Browser is a good pick, in my opinion. Don't be shy, give it a try!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
