While most of us have used Safari in one way or another (it's basically the Mac version of Internet Explorer, but a bit better), Rover was something I had never even heard of before. Once I had started to play around with it, I realized why I hadn't heard of it before: because it isn't very good, and because it isn't very free, either.
In comparison to Safari, Rover has several restrictions placed on it. This is because it was created as a browser that can be safe for kids to use. However, this is also its downfall, as it kept me from visiting a handful of sites that, in my opinion, were completely safe for kids to visit, like certain sports themed websites.
Rover also is not free, at least not if you want to take advantage of all of its features. There is a free version of Rover, but in order to use features like Flash and video streaming, you have to pay the one time fee of $9.99. Which is odd, because most web browsers offer services like this for free. I've never had to pay Firefox just to be able to use Flash. And while Safari and Flash may be incompatible, Rover's lack of ability to let you freely search the web without restriction makes that particular feature moot in some cases.
Overall, I doubt I'll ever consider purchasing Rover, or using it at all. While the Flash option might be nice, I don't like the restrictions or the fees involved.
That said, Rover probably would be a decent web browser to use in elementary schools, because of its restricted access to filtered websites. But for anyone in high school and above, its restrictions are more limiting than anything else.
Fair enough. :-)
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