Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Review: Diigo Browser


Available on: iOS
Reviewed on: iPad
Price: Free

Introduction:

Any Chrome users out there? Apple will not allow a Google web browser on their iPad and Google will probably not develop one for the iOS, so Chrome users are left with Safari on the iOS. But wait -  The Diigo Browser is there and it does a pretty good job of copying the Chrome interface.

Usability:

This is Chrome on the iPad without the Google branding. So we get the infamous Omni-bar, which doubles as an address/search box. Besides the Omni-bar get panes for bookmarks, offline reading lists and sharing options. We can share our content on Facebook, Twitter, Diigo, Tumblr, Pinboard, Google Reader, Instapaper and Email.

We also get tabbed browsing, Yes, we get tabs! Which makes us wonder yet again why Apple ignored tabs on Safari. We can even neatly swipe all the tabs from the tab pane but unfortunately we cannot switch tabs. Browsing speeds are pretty top notch but again thanks to Apple's stubbornness we don't get any Adobe Flash.

All in all, it's a no frills, bare bones experience but the one feature we miss a lot is a built-in download manager. Pinch to zoom works perfectly but other than that we don't get any multi-touch magic similar to the iCab Web browser.

Verdict:

The Diigo Browser is a very capable free alternative to Safari. It offers us a tabbed browsing in a very intuitive interface by mimicking the Google Chrome web browser, which is not a bad thing in itself. Apart from these features, it does not offer any specialty functions, which iCab does. But, then again, its free! Maybe they could add a download manager in the next version or are we being a tad greedy?

Rating: 4.7
Usability - 4.5
Price - 5
Wow factor - 4



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