Notes for ALL Android Browsers (listed above):

• None of the browsers listed display Source Code, install VT View Source, and invoke through browser's Share option.
• All browsers feature a Share option, from Menus or a toolbar to Share a page (Opera from logo, Dolphin can also use an assignable gesture).
• Many Apps feature and use a Share symbol to share with email, Evernote (notes), and other apps.
• Without a keyboard bookmarks are really difficult. Dolphin, Firefox, Opera, Boat, Angel, Next all have Bookmark folders.  Unfortunately Browser, the one you generally have to import/export from/to does not have folders, nor keyword shortcuts (aliases).  Boat specifically has a System Browser folder for bookmarks from Browser.
• Gestures:  Dolphin has gestures. Boat now has gestures but practically useless with a limit of 12 (poor recognition).  Angel has gestures, but not on JavaScript where they are most needed.  Firefox has keyword shortcuts.  Both gestures and keywords will be needed on future systems, devices and desktops so people can switch between many different devices.  Keywords work well when using keyboards.  Gestures and voice work fairly well with small devices.  Android already is used on very small screens (watches) and the largest of screens (TV sets).  The link at the beginning of this item goes beyond setting up gestures, it shows most of the gestures that I created and actually use. 
• Google Chrome on desktop experimenting with gestures looks like something out of a 1940's writing motion study with straight lines, certainly does not appear as advanced as Dolphin, and Angel for characters.  I have 1 or 2 gestures that are completely retraced to use the same gestures as one already used ("V").
• Text flow/wrap:  generally double tap after zooming in; Dolphin: menu > settings > web content > auto fit page; Firefox: menu > more > settings > pinch to reflow text; Browser: Menu > More > Settings > Auto-fit pages; Boat: menu > settings > Labs > Text wrapping settings > Auto-fit pages & Text wrapping; Opera: logo button > settings > Text wrap;
• Zooming on Android browsers:  Generally pinch in/out to adjust size of font, then double tap to adjust text.  Try to double tap in a column or if you want to see multiple columns something that spans those columns.  User Agent settings can be used to tell browser how you want to view -- as a tablet or as a desktop browser.
• Android is way past due for expanding into having separate moveable windows available.  So browsers (default and Google Chrome) that use separate windows instead of tabs will be even more out of date in the future. 
• Five Android browser power user tips - Tutorials - butterscotch. Browser home page, shortcut on device Home Page (fudd), share links, find on page, zoom w/o pinching.
• Opera has the best Speed Dial (but is a poor replacement for bookmarks, "Opera Classic" still has bookmarks). Easily managed, scrollable, and apparently no limit (or high limit) on number of items within.  Boat limited to 30 items.  Dolphin, can move items within 9 item pages or to another SD page (unlimited? pages), adds to wherever "+" sign is.
• Android: One more thing to keep in mind when using any Android device, everything is reported to Google, you have no choice.

Browser specific Notes:

• add-ons: Dolphin: View/enable/disable/add Add-ons from right sidebar;
  Firefox: View/enable/disable/add Add-ons from Menu > More; Find new Firefox addons from Add-ons
• Bookmarklets should run from webpages, links and bookmarks, need to check for each browser.  Dolphin and other Android browsers have problems with bookmarks run from bookmarks. With Dolphin it is coding with other Android browsers it may be also other limitations.  Firefox bookmarks work in Android version of Firefox, but keyword shortcuts are ignored (see Firefox item).  Opera (Android) did away with bookmarks, install Opera Classic to be able to use read only copies from default Browser.  Dolphin bookmarks can have a gesture.  Boat browser appears to have a problem with bookmarklets, either they don't work, or have severe limitations on size (length in characters). 
• Appears no mobile browser can allow you to drag a link into bookmarks.  Nothing can be dragged in any Android browser web pages, only to within manage mode in SD or bookmarks can one drag icons around or drag bookmarks within bookmarks.
• Bookmarklets on all except Firefox require removal of all hex substitutions (%20 must be changed to a space).  Android browsers all appear to expect you to copy all your bookmarks from another system to the default Android browser then copy them to other Android browsers as if everything would be relevant or useable. I have no intention of copying over 5,000 desktop bookmarks onto a mobile device, which would almost certainly overwhelm an Android if copied over, not work anyway along with being able to manage them at all on an Android. 
• The bookmarklets in Firefox were copied from my k.html (bookmarks toolbar file) individually with "Bookmark Link" from the link context menu, adding keywords later (without ending colon in Android keywords because of unwieldy software keyboard).  I have a web page on Firefox Keyword Shortcuts which describes how to use and create your own.
• I created a text file of JavaScript bookmarklets from which one can easily copy and paste each title entry, url entry, and key in keyword with copy from desktop use of 3CX (play store) to get a string into Android clipboard so you can copy each part for every bookmark you want.  It is tedious and takes many hours. This was necessary because desktop bookmarks with %20 will not work on most Android browsers.  It would have been better to have entered them into Browser first then copied them into several other browsers from there.

Dolphin Browser: It is annoying that it takes 4 seconds in invoke a gesture at best.  One should either enter a gesture directly, or one button beforehand, not something that has to be directed in a certain direction or it fails.  The Tabs list and the Sonar could be separate gestures, there is no need to complicate the gesture button.

Boat Browser: Although Boat has Bookmark folders it does not tell you what folder you are within -- this is very disturbing (as are the ads).

Next Browser: preferences: Autohide addr bar (Off), Exit (Clear cache). Disable "Night mode" extension, install "Screenshot" Extension.  Had to clear all options and reinstall because Night Mode made everything completely black.

Firefox: The Android version is a disappointment because it does not work well on Androids.
Firefox pros:

1. Did retain keywords, and displays them in the bookmark editor, and thankfully dropped tags.  and then came version 23.0.1 and nothing works.
2. JavaScript can remain encoded with %20 for space just like on all desktop browsers. The other Android browsers fail miserably here.
3. You can copy a JavaScript link from the link context menu.  The other Android browsers do not allow this.  But that does not mean that you can simply drag a bookmarklet from a webpage or copy it into your bookmarks directly -- you can't, that is unsupported in all Android browsers.  If you are working from an exported bookmarks list, don't forget to add your keyword shortcut later, as they are not picked up from the link, even if it has shortcuturl.
4. You can bookmark a link, including one that is a bookmarklet through the link context menu.  The other Android browsers fail miserably here.

1. Editing a bookmark immediately by clicking on the big solid bookmark star does not work, you must bring up your bookmarks to edit a bookmark.
2. As of 23.0.1 the keywords no longer work at all in Firefox and in the meantime you are expected to find them in the local search (double toil, double trouble).  Keywords and Description were never included in the location bar search.  You may need to increase maxRichResults in about:config up from default 24.  Did get keywords to work again, but then versions after 43.0.1 failed again at least thru 45.0 (so another extension and/or configuration parameter at the very least has been corrupted by Firefox).
3. Keyword shortcuts with %S do not work, they end up as a Google search.  (ff: kws.htm)
4. Bringing up bookmarks is convoluted, think of how to bring up a new tab. 
5. Firefox does not have a user defined homepage, instead it has a Start Screen that comes up when all tabs are closed, or you open a new tab to location "about:home".  It only includes six pages, and it is not what you see when you want to open a new tab. The actual homepage is one of Mozilla's.
6. Starting a new tab: [Convoluted] Click on the tabs count button, then click on the gray "+" on the black background in the same position. Nothing really indicates that you are starting a new tab, because it is also the convoluted way of bringing up the Top Sites/History/Bookmarks trio.  You can also get to new tab by clicking on the physical Android Menu button.  When you open a webpage link (or history link, or bookmark link) you can use long press, to open the link into a new tab.
7. Black "x" on dark gray background for closing tab is hard to see with even a little glare. (only a problem in Portrait mode)
8. Cannot sort Bookmarks.  Both Bookmarks and History take minutes before they appear for first time in a session.  Need a bookmarks manager to sort bookmarks, scroll around easily with real scrollbars, and be able to show keyword without having to edit bookmark.
9. Cannot see keyword on bookmark list. No maintenance mode so that clicking is an edit, and it would tell you how far down in the list you are.  No idea of how many bookmarks you actually have. I have only a fraction on my Android of what I use on my desktop.
10. Pinning a page to tabs bar prevents accidental deletion (or used to), now it's just for Pinning a page within the Start Screen.
11. Firefox does not support speech to text which is in Android and the other Android browsers. (does not appear on the keyboard).  Actually found that pressing the spacebar brings up the microphone button in one keyboard layout, but it also puts a space into the address bar.
12. Awesome bar internal search internal search autocomplete restrictions introduced in Firefox 3.0 were never included in the Android version -- bookmarks(*), History(^), Title (#), URL(@), or typed(~). Rechecked because they do appear in about:config, and they fail because they go directly into a Google search. Trying to invoke a bookmarklet directly from bookmarks will result in a page not found error, You can invoke a bookmarklet from a location bar internal search of bookmarks though unless it contains substitutions (%S).

Google Chrome:  Disappointing that a new browser is so limited.  Cannot invoke bookmarklets to operate on an open tab because a new tab is opened.  Claims to be able to use search on the page to find the bookmarklet, but clicking on the bookmarklet presented does mothing.  No way to close all tabs except to close Chrome and restart 3 times. Only 5 tabs visible at once, and no way to show all tabs at once in a drop-down list. Tabs can be rearranged (long-press), or slid through to see other tabs. New Tab page cannot be rearranged, pinned, only choice is to remove, or open a page 6 times in row to get it to show up in Speed Dial list (6 page limit). Only advantage is that Google is one of a few apps that work with ChromeCast (other apps: YouTube, and any tab/window showing a ChromeCast symbol).

Angel Browser:  Has a lot of potential as a rival for Dolphin, but has made several major mistakes.

1. Problems with "Find": (1) Identifies all hits, but the first hit is skipped over to show the second hit or one much further down, (2) when actively pressing next arrow, some hits are either covered by the find bar or not in the current view, (3) Scrolling page view destroys FIND search.
2. Bookmarklets (scripts) are bookmarks, but have been incorrectly separated out and not treated as bookmarks.  Bookmarklets work on/from a webpage so one must not be placed into a new page by the browser when running a bookmarklet unless that is it's final objective, and I'm guessing that was the reason they were incorrectly separated in Angel along with the fact that the default Android browser does not have folders and it is a good idea to keep at least most of your bookmarklets in a separate bookmark folder.
3. Bookmarklets can not use the same code as on desktop because they don't work with %20 for space, etc on Androids, so are not properly formed. Only Firefox does this correctly of the Android browsers shown here.
4. Bookmarklets need the gestures (and/or keywords) the most, but Angel only allows them on url type bookmarks.
5. Bookmarks have been locked into the url when created and can not be modified, this makes things difficult, besides preventing creating and using bookmarklets.
6. Bookmark entry is tedious, would appreciate link context menu items "Copy Link" (instead of "Copy link URL"), and "Bookmark Link" and both should include JavaScript links as well a normal url links.
7. The import/export are difficult as there is no easy way to place them onto the SD card.  This is more a matter of lacking directions.
8. Angel has some interesting undocumented features.
9. The help in Menu (last in More) is in Japanese, even though am using English version.  You can run a translation on the help page, but that leaves a lot to be desired with unfamiliar Japanese words.  Translate script ("tr:")
   javascript:location='http://translate.google.com/translate?u='+encodeURIComponent(location);
10. Menu item "Down key" is misspelled.  Very noticeable in a menu.
11. Relies on importing/exporting bookmarks html file on the SDCARD, but that would require an add-on.  The default browser does not have an export or an import.  I used a no longer available Dolphin extension to export from the default Android Browser.  "Bookmarks SD" placed the exported file into /sdcard/TunnyBrowser/Bookmarks/yyyy-mm-dd...
12. The exported file turned out to be of little value because it is the bookmarklets I wanted, so I had to install them individually from my text file with the help of 3CX (play store) as I had done with Dolphin and then again in the Android Browser so they could be used in the other Android browsers and then in each browser that supported folders separating bookmarks into proper folders that Browser does not have.

Backup / Import / Export / Restore / Cloud / Sorting Bookmarks   (#table2)

KitKat

Now have Kitkat (4.4) and Chrome is available on Ice Cream Sandwich and later.

"BookmarkSB" folder -- sdcard/BookmarkSB/ contains 2014-12-06_22-58-01.html from a backup and is basically empty, and then with bookmarklets_for_tablet.html from by desktop storage.

Dolphin bookmarklets may have been added with help of ES Explorer, VT View Source. But were probably updated with Dolphin Cloud storage from my bookmarklets from previous tablet. In any case I did have to recreate all gestures.

Boat bookmarklets, can be sorted alphabetically (or created time, visits, last visited) so order restored is not a problem. Restored bookmarklets > Cloud > Restore from "Bookmarks to SD Card". /storage/emulated/0/Boat_Browser_Free/bookmarks

Chrome browser, this is a problem it does not have a sort, so when imported using tool "Google Bookmark Import Tool" had used Import > Import from HTML to populate the tools bookmarks, but when imported into Chrome the bookmarks are in reverse order neither the tool nor Chrome provide for sorting. It provides Backup to from /storage/emulated/0.BookmarkBackup.bookmarks,xml which I did not use to populate the file size is 62KB. "BookmarkSB" could wort in reverse alphabetical beforehand, but I don't intend to do much with Chrome. Used "Import from HTML" and almost certainly imported from Tunny Browser (Dolphin) - it has a wide range for importing from other browsers (nice). Of course Google expects other browsers to feed from Chrome or the Default browser (not the same browser as in Gingerbread, this "Internet" browser is repackaged by Samsung). Bookmarks were imported into Bookmarks > Mobil bookmarks. To use a bookmarklet on Chrome you must go into bookmarks to find your bookmarklet then click on javascript code of bookmarklet. Despite best efforts looking at How to Use Bookmarklets in Chrome for Mobile,  could not get bookmarklet(href:) to work on Chrome.

Internet Browser, repackaged by Samsung, use "BookmarkSB" then restore (115 bookmarks loaded)but unable to see, view, or use any bookmarklets if they they were restored.

Other Browsers: (untested)

• Google Chrome for Android, not compatible with my device using Gingerbread 2.3.4; otherwise, would have included.
• UC Browser for Android, best feature seems to be categorized SD, memory hog and slow (not interested)
• Skyfire Web Browser 4.0, most social mobile browser, TechCrunch - Best Android (without gestures)
• Maxthon Android Web Browser, cloud browser, fast, secure, free and lightweight.
• Puffin Web Browser Free flash video and game support fast.

Tablet Browser/Apps limitations

1. Apps lockup or close down frequently and you lose your work in progress
2. Backups on home computers are as straight forward as you want them, and secure, if it can be limited to your machines.  On the Android you basically have cloud storage that while convenient is sporadically implemented (undocumented) and not secure leaving you at the mercy of application providers, banks, credit agencies, ISPS, gatekeepers, and government agencies and anybody any of those wish to share your data with.
3. Copy and Paste is not accurate or easy. Firefox on desktop allows to copy multiple selections at once and then paste anywhere
4. Does not have a keyboard. Software keyboards are clumsy.  Actually if you do connect a bluetooth keyboard you will see how slow the tablet really is.
5. Does not have forward character delete.  Windows has both backward and forward delete. This should be even more important on an Android since touch is not very accurate.
6. Does not have scroll bars to get you speedily to any point.
7. Email basically stinks on Android.  With the possible exception of searching on GMail.
8. HDMI ports are available on new tablets but not available on older laptops and desktops
9. Interface software keyboard voice touch screen vs Keyboard monitor pointing device
10. No Ctrl-Z to undo a mistake
11. Photo editing sorting normal stuff on PCs is not easy or is inadequate on a tablet
12. Repairs not made with swappable parts for consumer repair.
13. Response time mine is single core I believe most current tablets are mostly quad core
14. Security -- Adblock Plus is only available on Firefox and is very limited No update access to the hosts file You can install Avaste (available as an APP) on your tablet but that is limited protection that you do not control
15. Sorting is very limited on Android computer people refer to sorting as invoking something to sort things typically alphabetically or numerically see Sorting algorithm and software rather than the ability to manually rearrange stuff You may have to resort to using an Online HTML Tool such as Alphabetical Order Tool let's you alphabetize text online
16. USB connections you may have 4 USB ports on a desktop or laptop vs 1 USB port on an Android mainly used for charging

Summary and Related pages:

This page was introduced on January 16, 2013,

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