CHROME!
...wait, why Chrome and not FireFox?
FireFox is awesome, there's no doubt about that - and I recommend you use it for your normal day-to-day web browsing. Its RSS functionality, for one thing, is vastly superior to Chrome's... well, absolute lack of RSS functionality.
The thing that makes FireFox less than perfect for the Island (and other scenarios where you're moving through many pages very quickly) is in how it sorts out your history. You've probably noticed that your hard drive starts grinding like an old washing machine after shutting down FireFox - if you've got any sort of memory/CPU monitor installed, you'll also notice that the longer you have FireFox open (or rather, the more pages you go through), the more memory it uses. Rather than writing your history to disk as you load a page, it caches it in RAM and then writes it after you exit the program. Go on for long enough, it'll start writing to the swapfile (writing to disk because it's filled up all the memory to which it writes to avoid having to write to disk), and then you're in for a performance nosedive.
FireFox's memory usage is a problem, but unless you're on a very old machine (like me) it's not a crippling one most of the time - except when you're loading hundreds of pages in a single session, as fast as the pages will load, for example when fighting off a bunch of monsters on the Island. Then, FireFox goes slower and slower, using up more and more memory, until the delay between page loads on your end is far longer than the time the server takes to produce the page.
So, Chrome's superior speed and memory handling for the Island and other browser games, FireFox's superior functionality and flexibility for everything else. Haven't tested Opera yet - if you fancy doing some benchmarks, feel free.
(Internet Explorer, as ever, can paddle to hell in a slop bucket)
This just makes me feel better about using Chrome for here, I used to think it was too weird.
Plus, the windows are so compact and sleek and you can make them prettyyy.
(Internet Explorer, as ever, can paddle to hell in a slop bucket)
Sweet! CMJ endorses my favorite browser.
I went straight from an old version of IE to Chrome, personally. Firefox is somehow infuriatingly slow on both computers I've used, and so horrifically cluttered compared to Chrome... Oh Chrome, how I love and adore thee.
What the hell is RSS, and why is it so magnificent that I'd want to do... whatever the hell I have to do... to make it work, rather than just look for updates and articles by, I don't know, using my favorites menu? 
I use Opera. Haven't benchmarked. Haven't noticed any slowing down over long sessions.
I would use Chrome, but the Mac release requires an Intel processor.
I will use Chrome, when my spankin' new ThinkPad arrives and I retire this six-year-old PowerBook.
(Oops. Accidental double post.)
On a Mac, Chrome is just barely out of beta and still a bit buggy. I have used both it and Opera with the Island and found they work reasonably well. For my regular gameplay, I'm now using the Mac-standard browser, Safari, but Chrome is noticeably the fastest of the browsers I've tried, so in a few months, after it settles a bit, I may switch to it as my main Island browser.
(I was prompted to look for something other than the Mac version of Firefox for the Island back when the 'most recent action' status bar was added. I'd put up with sometimes-painful slowness -- which you have just explained very nicely, and thanks for that, CMJ! -- but in Mac Firefox, the status bar feature made every page flash white before loading. It was a flash bulb going off in my face several times a minute. Not tolerable.)
(I was prompted to look for something other than the Mac version of Firefox for the Island back when the 'most recent action' status bar was added. I'd put up with sometimes-painful slowness -- which you have just explained very nicely, and thanks for that, CMJ! -- but in Mac Firefox, the status bar feature made every page flash white before loading. It was a flash bulb going off in my face several times a minute. Not tolerable.)
To try out CMJ's recommendation, I just downloaded and installed Chrome.
I downloaded Chrome to give it a shot on CMJ's recommendation, and I have to say I'm not a big fan. Getting the White Screen Flash on II, for instance. Also, I don't like not knowing where to go to turn off the Automatic Form Entry or whatever, that keeps giving me suggestions as to what I want to write in the Comment box...gets annoying after a while, since if I type : at the start of it, it'll list EVERY ACTION I'VE PERFORMED...
That and I'm not a big fan of the interface at all.
I think I'll stick to FF, mostly because I really enjoy it as a browser, and it doesn't seem to have the major memory-hog issues on my system (mind you, I don't store history, and tend to clear cache/tempfiles relatively often, so it doesn't bog down much)
Could also be the way Chrome works in Linux...
Hmm... there must be something related to your computer's age and which browser you should use for the island. I say this because I tried Chrome and it was indeed faster than Firefox (I'm on a older PC with XP).
I had the occasional white screen flash on both of them, but changing my preferences to the Improbable - Gold skin changed it to the brown/gold background with no text popping up instead of the white screen on Chrome. I haven't tried on my Firefox because for some reason those make can freeze up my browser a little as I type.
Also, Daedalus, there is a way to turn on spell-checker in Firefox by either messing with it in the settings or right clicking a text box and selecting 'Check Spelling'.
EDIT: And Dave, there's a way to turn off auto-complete by clicking the wrench near the top-right corner and going to options, then the second tab should have it in the middle.
To try out CMJ's recommendation, I just downloaded and installed Chrome.
I adore Chrome. When I was told about the color preservation copy-paste thing I nearly proposed to it. Now I just feel smug. 
Dave, I'm running Ubuntu 9.10 and don't have the flashing problem. I've gotten that flashing problem before in multiple browsers on multiple machines, actually, but it's always resolved itself pretty quickly. Also the interface is exactly the same as it is on my Win XP machine, so if Chrome doesn't work for you in Linux, I have the feeling it won't make you happy in any other OS.
There are two reasons why I use Firefox and not Chrome, which I otherwise like.
1) Adblock Plus. I have forgotten that the internet is full of banner ads and popups. It is that effective.
2) NoScript. I play World of Warcraft and there have been a lot of keylogger scares for WoW-related sites, due to the [relative-unimportance-to-profit] ratio of stealing accounts and using them to farm gold for real sale. The addon NoScript disables Java, Javascript, Flash, and all other scripts when I come onto a website, and I manually allow the specific ones I need to browse a site in the intended way. It is at first a major inconvenience, but you get used to it. The trade-off between convenience and security is well worth it.
Until I find that Chrome has functions or addons which mimic these Firefox addons, I am virtually "forced" to browse using Firefox, as my account security feels at risk otherwise. (Well, NoScript is the security, AdBlock Plus is just super-convenient.)
Edit: By "relative unimportance", I mean the degree to which it is protected and would be recovered. Bank accounts are easy to call and get them to shut them down and cancel illegal purchases. World of Warcraft accounts aren't quite on the same level.
I'm still using IE8. I think that its finally beginning to catch up. IE7 Introduced tabs. IE8 adds the finction view in devloper, so you can then view its HTML,CSS scripts and everything else about it. It can be used in some games to cheat. (Haven't tried for II - don't want to. More useful on something like MechQuest, its no good, single player so I don't feel guilty.)
As always, I'm a bit late to jump on the wagon, but here I am nevertheless!
I refused to download Chrome for the longest time because it "looks funny," however, Firefox has been preforming intolerably shitty lately. I was willing to try anything to relieve the pressure in my skull.
Chrome is badass, ladies and gentlemen. Improbable Island is running gobs and gobs faster for me. It is a huge (and I mean bloody gargantuan) difference!
Yes, I am getting a bit of white page-flashing every now and again, but compared to waiting for Firefox's lazy ass to load... it is not a bother in the least.
There you have it. I was reluctant to try it, but I'm ever-so-glad I did. In minutes, I've gone from "eww, yucky" to "oh my god! Best thing since sliced bread!"
Try Options > Under the Hood > Uncheck DNS Prefetching. And try not to alt-tab all the time.
It worked for me for a while... now Chrome is back to hating me again.
Chrome! I am trying so hard to love you why do you not love me back. 
Er wow, left out the most important part of that, which is to say that that is how I (partially, temporarily) got rid of the white-flashy thing. Maybe it will work better for you! Whooooo knows.
So, I'm on my desktop on which I don't care about security.
I was grinding my Cleaning the Carcass skill in Kittania, mashing my P key and getting lots of "badnav" in the URL, when I thought about the Chrome recommendation.
OH MAH GAWRD
The pages load so much faster. I've gained a level of Cleaning the Carcass in half the real-world time that I did on Firefox. Holy crap.
I now fully advocate playing Improbable Island on Google Chrome.
I have fallen for the Chrome, and I really do recommend it to all of you. Yes, you. I can see you looking.
I do still get the white flashes, but they're slow enough that they don't terrify my eyes. Despite the slow flashes (uh...) the game runs so much faster on it. Now if I can only find an adblocking service...
For those of you on about it,
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom
Yeah. Firefox, try one-upping Chrome now.
Why thank you. Now I know who to bug every time I need anything
(referring to this forum obviously. I don't intend to turn up on KK's doorstep every time I have a problem. Hmm, or do I?)
Think you would've learned by now, Kai will eat whatever problem you present him.
"Kai, my laptop isn't working."
*Crunch*
"Now is no laptop for not work."
OK ... what's going on ...
About two weeks ago, after a Firefox (FF) update, FF went all slow ... like incredibly slow. Not just on the Island, so I discounted that as a cause. On a couple of different sites I was typing faster than the text would appear, and I'm no speed typer ... ist .. thing. It was lag from hell. Pages would fail to load ... permitted pop ups wouldn't ... FF would just hang till I decided to force a close with task manager (TM). But ... as soon as I opened TM, the page would 'unhang' (?) and refresh. And it varied, consistently, across different sites. Some were not affected at all. I eventually realised that the pages affected were only the ones with user input options ... like chat spaces.
FF was clearly broken somewhere.
After a a week of this I noticed something ... when I opened TM, CPU usage was typically over 70%, sometimes at 100%, until I forced a close. So I opened FF, then TM. With FF idle, it was still using 50% .... on a blank home page. Nothing else was running. "Processes" showed it was all being used by FF.
What the ... ?
Reluctantly I opened MS vunera ... I mean Explorer. Problem gone. Crap .. the problem is in FF.
SO, I re-installed Chrome. Despite the white flashes between slow -ish reloads that I mentioned in my first post on this thread. Again, no resource issues.
For a week now I've been using Chrome on the Island. (Now that just sounds odd.) I realised that although, as I mentioned, it was slow -ish, at least it was consistent. The flashes are annoying, but ... I can deal with it.
Today ... on Island, Chrome is fast. Really fast. And no white flashes. I haven't changed any settings. BUT (there had to be one) every 20 or so actions (fight, search, move, etc) I get Chrome's "Oops ... Can't connect" screen. Refresh, and it goes back to normal ... for 20 or so actions.
I'm berry berry confused.
Any thoughts on this? Anyone with similar issues?
D.
I had noticed that Chrome seems to be running very fast this morning. I'm quite happy with that. Perhaps it's my connection not acting up for once or something similar, but I'm having fun.
What I don't understand is why I suddenly have two MOTD bars at the top of my screens. All of a sudden they've just appeared there. Both appear to be functional... it's just... why two?
Strangeness.
Yeah, as far as I noticed Chrome is faster, but I guess I'll stick to FF for a bit, well until they develop functioning flashblock for Chrome.
But thanks for making me reconsider re-installing Chrome again (I always wondered where those slow-downs with FF came from, thanks CJ) 
I've lost the CSS in Chrome as of yesterday. Cleared my cache, history, temporary files, and no love. I don't want to clear cookies as I don't know how to selectively delete in Chrome, only to wipe them all, but I may have to do that. Anyone have advice?
I just want to say that I've got Chrome, but I'm probably going to get rid of it. It doesn't seem any better than IE8 in terms of speed, and even lacks some of its more advanced features. Then again, there could be more things to it I haven't found yet.
I've lost the CSS in Chrome as of yesterday. Cleared my cache, history, temporary files, and no love. I don't want to clear cookies as I don't know how to selectively delete in Chrome, only to wipe them all, but I may have to do that. Anyone have advice?
It's actually somewhere else in my version (4.1.249.1045) but I did find it. Thanks.
It's actually somewhere else in my version (4.1.249.1045) but I did find it. Thanks.
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