Internet Explorer has had the ability to save pages as .mht files for over a decade. Approximate functionality has yet to make its way into either Firefox or Chrome yet, unfortunately. Very fortunately, there are extensions that do the trick. On Firefox there is the fantastic Mozilla Archive Format extension that not only allows Firefox to seemlessly read and create .mht files, but also lets it use the open and far superior .maf file format (and allows the conversion between .mht, complete web saves with folder created by Firefox, IE, and Chrome, and .maf en masse). MAFF files are universally readable once unzipped (they, like ODF and Microsoft OpenXML, are really zip files with a different extension) and can contain multiple tabs saved at once (great for sites that use pagination, like most newspapers). Oh, and it also saves the originating address of the page and makes it easily accessable when viewing. That in itself is invaluable.
Chrome's SingleFile produces a special single-archive html file. The good side is that its files are compatible with all major browsers without having to unzip. The bad side is that the whole thing is a horrible kluge. It's a mess all the way from the fact that the extension overloads a .html file with graphics and other non-html data to the need to download a second add-on to make it work to the ridiculous process you need to go through to save a file (read the instructions on the linked page; I can attest, it's even more of a pain in the ass than it seems). And Chrome still cannot read let alone write .mht files. If someone sends you one, you're out of luck.
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