The interesting thing about this browser is that it includes the three rendering engines that are found in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari/Chrome. There are a few reasons why this browser may be worth adding to your arsenal, even if you don’t use it as your default.

As you can see in the screenshot above, Lunascape asks you whether you want its default rendering engine to be Trident (found in Internet Explorer), Gecko (the same version found in Firefox 3.5) or WebKit (found in Safari and Chrome). You can either manually set Lunascape to use a particular rendering engine, or you can have it select one to use on the fly for optimized performance. Lunascape officials claim that the JavaScript performance in their browser is actually faster than in Firefox 3.5. If it is, the difference is minimal, but there are a few other reasons why this browser is worth having on hand.

If you regularly use multiple browsers, as I do, you’re probably familiar with the fact that many pages render differently on different browsers. There are also certain kinds of live-streamed events, such as webcasts, that look very different depending on the rendering engine in your browser. Lunascape can level the playing field, and let you quickly get to the properly rendered version of a page at which you’re looking.

Lunascape is also used by some web developers and designers who want to rifle through the popular rendering engines on the fly as they create things, to see how they look and to monitor any errors. I suspect most readers won’t use Lunascape as their primary browser, but it’s worth having on hand when you want to switch rendering engines without jumping in and out of browsers.

Have you tried Lunascape? Let us know your thoughts on this new browser in the comments.

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Did I mention it’s a triple-engine browser? That’s right, Gecko, Trident, and WebKit, all under one hood.

Lunascape’s first English alpha release (Windows only) came out just last week, and I’ve spent the intervening time getting to know it a little better. Let me preface this article by noting that it is alpha software, so there are definitely some rough edges that need smoothing. That said, I was surprised by the number of useful features the browser brings to the table.

Obviously, engine-switching is more than a snazzy parlor trick. It means you can check your output and compatibility in all rendering engines from one convenient location. Web designers and web app developers can check engine compliance without opening multiple browsers. You no longer have to dust off poor, neglected IE just to view content that’s only viewable in Microsoft’s broswer.

But what about that claim to the world browser speed record? In my admittedly non-scientific practical tests, it actually was a little slower than Firefox using WebKit, although it seemed on par, but not noticeably faster using Gecko.

Testing Hiveminder and Campfire worked out fine, both web apps displayed and functioned correctly, even when I switched the engine (which you can do by right clicking on a Tab’s title).

I ran into a huge snag, however, when I tried to login to my WordPress blog. Any login attempt just booted me back to the login form, no matter what engine I was using. I tried at a number of different WordPress sites, self and wordpress.com hosted, to see if the error persisted, and it did. As a freelancer who regularly contributes to a number of blogs, this means Lunascape cannot, as it, become my one and only browser. This takes away a lot of the benefit of engine switching.

Lunascape does have some nice features built in that only come by way of add-ons for other browsers. An RSS reader, for instance, with a customizable notification area and headlines displayed in blank space next to your open tabs. Auto reload is built in for Trident and Gecko, along with a host of selective content (images, sounds, etc.) filters. These options are not currently available when viewing pages rendered with the WebKit engine.

My final impression of Lunascape is a mixed one. On the one hand, it has some nice aggregation and developer tools that can increase efficiency and decrease time wasted on distractions and manual program switching, but on the other, it lacks some very basic functionality that I can’t work without.

For now, it can only supplement, and not replace my browser arsenal.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• What Does the Future Hold For Browsers?
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce