Smart Bro

The release of Mozilla’s Firefox browser has rekindled the Web browser wars. However, a few other companies still offer their own browsing alternatives, often by adding their own enhancements to Microsoft’s basic Internet Explorer technology. Smart Bro is one of these, giving its own tab-driven face-lift to Microsoft’s underlying software. Its tabbed windows are useful, but unlike some of its rivals, Smart Bro does not have the ability to remember groups of tabs, and reopen them all at once. It offers a pop-up blocker and automatic form-filling tool, and a utility for querying Google’s search engine that we found somewhat awkward. It lacks a download manager, as well as tools for working with multiple proxies. For computer users who want to improve the Internet Explorer interface without migrating to a completely different platform, Smart Bro provides a decent choice. However, most users are likely to prefer freeware alternatives such as Firefox.