I use the Internet an awful lot, and I'm a great fan of Internet Explorer. That's the browser that I usually use the most, but I've decided to give Netscape a go, and yes this is my very first opinion written in a Netscape browser. And I've got to admit, I'm starting to make quite a few typos here and there; I think it's because of the different font size used in text boxes like the one I'm writing this opinion in.

I decided to give Netscape a try last night, when I was looking through my web site, and deciding how to go about designing a cross-browser version of my site. Should I hire someone with Netscape to view it, or should I do the dirty work myself?? And I'm very glad I chose the latter option, because this is just the second time I've ever used Netscape in my whole life - and the first when it is actually possible to surf to web sites.

My first impression of the browser is good. I like the blue-grey background, but my second impression is a no-no. When I go to click in the adress bar, I'm used to clicking once and having the whole box highlighted so I can start typing, but here in NS6 you have to select the whole box before typing the URL.

While I was browsing a JavaScript cut and paste site the other day, I came across a script which enabled you to add your site to the user's NS Sidebar, and the site said that the sidebar was one of the features of the new browser. And here I am now with the Sidebar by my side. Unfortunately the presence of the sidebar means that the space used for viewing the web page is considerably smaller than the usual space, however you can close the sidebar like you would the Favourites, History or Search bar in Internet Explorer. It's not as easy as it is in IE, though, as in order to save some toolbar space, the button enabling you to cl;ose the sidebar has been scrapped. Instead you have to go through the VIEW menu to close the site.

The sidebar co
ntains five tabs which you can click to obtain further information. The tabs are News, Weather, Buddy List (for Netscape Instant Messenger), Search and What's Related to the current page you're viewing. What I find rather clever is that when you click a tab, all the tabs below it move below the information space, and the tabs above remain. For example, when you click News which is the lowest tab, no tabs move because there are none underneath it, and a list of web sites containing news information open up in the information pane. These start wih things like BBC News, Sky News, Private Eye, CNN, and continue to Moreover, News Unlimited and Daily Telegraph below. All in all there are 20 news sites that appear under the News tab. All in all I like this addition!! I just clicked the link to BBC News and almost had a heart attack - the BBC site opened up in the same frame as I was writing this review, and I thought that maybe when I returned this op would have disappeated!! Thankfully not!! Because that certainly would have gone down in my bad books!!

As yet, I'm not totally sure how to change my homepage to one that I want...in other words anything ***but*** Netscape.co.uk!!!!! Anyone know??? Please let me know!!

Well....as a final conclusion I think I'm going to sum up what's happened with this browser and give it a 4 out of 5!! I'm going to be sticking to IE 5.5 for serious surfing though!!