What is a web browser?

We explain what a web browser is and its difference with a web browser. In addition, some examples of this program.

1. What is a web browser?

It is known as a web browser (or simply a browser) or also a web browser (or simply a browser) to a computer program that allows the user to access the Web pages they want , provided they know the URL where they are (for example:  www .google.com ) or click on a hyperlink that leads to that page.

Web browsers are programs widely used today, since without them you could not surf the Internet . Some are already preinstalled on our computers (such as Internet Explorer on Windows ), while others must be downloaded online (such as Google Chrome) or installed in some other way.

A web browser does nothing other than connect through the Internet to the server on which the information we are looking for, and request the design and visual assembly instructions that allow you to recover the text , images and ordering of the same, to compose a web page and show it to us already finished. For this , computer codes and protocols such as HTML are used .

But although all browsers fulfill this same function, they do not always do it in the same way, and there are more or less fast browsers, equipped with certain features and compatible with one or the other Operating System .

2. Difference between browser and search engine

The difference between these two elements of everyday use on the Internet is simple: browsers are programs installed on our computer , which therefore take up space on your hard drive and in some cases can cost us money, while search engines are online services. line that help us find the information we want in the vast universe of the Network .

In other words, we cannot access a search engine, such as Google or Bing, if we do not have a browser with which to access the Internet first. Similarly, having only the search engine would require us to know exactly the URL of each page we want to visit, and that could be very complicated. So it is better to learn only the search engine of our preference and use it to get the information we need.

3. Web browser examples

The most popular and common browsers are currently the following:

• Google  Chrome . From the company of the same name, it is an extremely agile browser that can be downloaded for free from the Internet. Its appearance revolutionized the world of browsers, forcing the market to make programs lighter and faster.
• Internet Explorer . Designed by Microsoft , it is the browser that is installed in its versions of Microsoft Windows, although it has been updated to remain competitive.
• Mozilla Firefox . Another popular browser, the first to have a tab design that allowed you to manage different navigation windows at the same time, was for a time the king of Internet browsers.
• Apple Safari . Safari is the quintessential browser for MacIntosh computers, as well as for smartphones and all Apple products.
• Opera . An extremely simple and fast browser, whose characteristics make it ideal for smartphones and tablets, since it takes up little space and demands few resources.