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I am constantly surprised by how many of my friends who are mostly tied to a computer all aren't doing all they can to make their online lives better.

I am talking about the folks who continue to use Internet Explorer (on their PCs and Safari on Macs) when there are other options.

I wouldn't mind it if these folks actually tried the other options and then decided to stick with these. It's the fact that they don't know, or haven't bothered to try the others, that gets me worked up.

So, friends and others, no more excuses. Here are the browsers I want you to try (they work well in PCs and Macs.) And the price is just right: FREE!

Firefox: This is the best, most stable browser out there and offers a range of features that you have to try out. Firefox 3 just came out and it's a major step forward in stability, ease-of-use and more. See all the features described here. It's what's called "open source" -- meaning hundreds of developers around the world work on it, improve it, add features. Sounds like a recipe for chaos. Instead, it makes for a better experience than IE or Safari.

Flock: Flock calls itself a "social web browser." It combines Firefox backend and features, with an integrated approach to social networking. This way, you can easily tap into your Facebook, Digg, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube content and connections. And if you are really adventurous, you can beta test version 2.0 here.

Let me know what you think: wnbcsree@gmail.com.