Dimwit question about cell phone browser

[Jon Light (deceased)]

I am a rank beginner with my Anroid phone. At this point I do not have a data plan but I will occasionally take it into a wifi room.

It is Android 5.1.

I had just jumped to the conclusion that the Google Adroid system had to use the Google Chrome browser. Period.
I guess that's not right, right?

So is there a hands-down preferred browser for this Adroid?
Does make of phone matter? (it is a Blu).

[Jon Light (deceased)]

Add-on question--

Would the fact that I use Firefox on my desktop make it a good choice for the phone, re: synced bookmarks and such?

OTH, for the phone, absolute simplicity would rule. Plain, basic, vanilla.

[Wiz Feinberg]

Add-on question--

Would the fact that I use Firefox on my desktop make it a good choice for the phone, re: synced bookmarks and such?

OTH, for the phone, absolute simplicity would rule. Plain, basic, vanilla.

I do that on my smartphone. I setup Firefox sync on my desktop PC and phone and I get the history of recently visited websites on mobile Firefox.

[Jon Light (deceased)]

Sounds good.

[Wiz Feinberg]

Due to differences in the physical layout of the mobile version, Firefox won't look the same on your phone. The history will appear as tiles.

[Dave Potter]

I've been an Android cellphone user for years, given that I'm one of those "anything-but-Apple" people.

To your question about Chrome, you're correct, it usually isn't present on most Android phones. The Android OS comes with its own native web browser. To get the Chrome browser on your Android phone, one normally has to download it and install it, like the rest of the browsers available for Android.

I've tried several other browsers on my phones, and I haven't liked any of them enough to keep them, including Firefox with it's "syncing" options, and Firefox is my browser of choice on my PC. On my phones, I've always returned to the native Android browser, which serves my needs fine. Having said that, I admit I don't spend a lot of time web browsing on my phone - it's just too small to be that useful.

The Android OS is a capable, useful, fun thing. And there are lots of apps on the "Play Store", a lot of them free. Enjoy your Android phone.

[Jon Light (deceased)]

I went ahead with FF. I won't use this much for the reason you state--I just don't see how/why people would browse with these tiny screens but I guess you make do when that's what you've got to work with.

My phone came with Chrome loaded. I am at a loss to see how to access "Android Browser". But no matter. It's a revelation to me that you can run your choice of browsers on this thing.

I'm going to be moving out of the city soon and I'll possibly upgrade my service to a full data plan so it's good to start learning something about this thing.

[Larry Carlson]

Add-on question--

Would the fact that I use Firefox on my desktop make it a good choice for the phone, re: synced bookmarks and such?

This may be completely wrong and not related but I have a tablet that runs on the Android platform.
It runs on Chrome best. Easy to use but my screen is full of ads and related junk.
Firefox is rather cumbersome and hard to navigate.
I tried to using the Ghostery browser to get rid of all the ads but that thing is a nightmare.
I am not really computer savvy but those are my experiences.

[Wiz Feinberg]

I went ahead with FF. I won't use this much for the reason you state--I just don't see how/why people would browse with these tiny screens but I guess you make do when that's what you've got to work with.

snip

Amazingly, millions, if not billions of people have opted to browse the Interwebs on their phones. As a result of the explosion of the mobile browsing market, Google has gently coerced concerned webmasters to make their web pages mobile friendly first and desktop friendly second. This is reverse of how we built websites just a few years ago. To maintain any existing or future search ranking our websites have in the Google index, we must make our web pages mobile friendly.

Some webmasters have opted to either create a mobile version of their sites, or hire a service to convert the pages when people visit with smartphones. Others, like me, chose to re-code our websites to respond to the device width and alignment and display well on all screens. This is known as Responsive Layout.

I use my Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone to check my work, both in portrait and landscape views. If something doesn't display correctly on the phone, I tweak the layout codes until it looks right. If touchable links are too close together on a phone, I increase the spacing, to avoid accidental finger activation of two links. Google lowers the ranking of pages having links too close together on a 320 pixel touch screen.

[Scott Duckworth]

I use an ad blocker browser on my Android tablet.

[Dave Potter]

Amazingly, millions, if not billions of people have opted to browse the Interwebs on their phones.

Yes, they have - reports are that young people are leaving TVs and PCs in droves in favor of using their cellphone for everything - web browsing, music and video streaming, etc. But once they get older, and life happens, and they no longer have their 20/20 eyesight, my bet is that big screen TVs and computer screens will start looking pretty good again.

When I'm out, and away from my stuff at home, I definitely use my phone for the web, but only when I really need to - it's just not fun.

[Jon Light (deceased)]

When I'm out, and away from my stuff at home, I definitely use my phone for the web, but only when I really need to - it's just not fun.

That's pretty much what I meant here:

--I just don't see how/why people would browse with these tiny screens but I guess you make do when that's what you've got to work with.

When I move, I might be offline until the utilities get me hooked up. I need to start looking into data plans. GPS apps are going to come in handy also. Learning how to use this thing & how to hook up a wifi hotspot, etc. is becoming an important imperative.

[Dave Potter]

When I'm out, and away from my stuff at home, I definitely use my phone for the web, but only when I really need to - it's just not fun.

That's pretty much what I meant here:

--I just don't see how/why people would browse with these tiny screens but I guess you make do when that's what you've got to work with.

Yep. I've made the "tiny screen" comment numerous times other places, forums, etc, and people usually laugh me out of the place. But most of 'em are 20-somethings with their perfect eyesight. In a few years, they'll lose some of their enthusiasm for their tiny screens.

When I move, I might be offline until the utilities get me hooked up. I need to start looking into data plans. GPS apps are going to come in handy also. Learning how to use this thing & how to hook up a wifi hotspot, etc. is becoming an important imperative.

I saw yours is a "Blu" phone, which I hadn't heard of till now. I assume you bought an unlocked phone and have a choice in service providers. Since it IS Android, it undoubtedly came with a suite of Google apps built-in, one of which probably is Google Maps. Very cool and useful; it can give you spoken directions as you're driving somewhere. But you're right, a data plan is critical to get full use out of the phone; you can't be having to hunt for a wifi hotspot anytime you want web access.

[Jon Light (deceased)]

you can't be having to hunt for a wifi hotspot anytime you want web access.

That would make for some erratic driving trying to hook up with Google Maps. Which could be fun.

The phone was cheap and it has some issues that may/may not be about getting what I paid for. Unlocked.