We explain what a web browser is and its difference from a Web search engine. Also, some examples of this program.
What is a web browser?
It is known as a web browser (or simply a browser) or also a web browser (or simply an explorer). a computer program that allows the user to access the Web pages they want as long as you know the URL where you are located (for example: www.google.com) or click on a hyperlink that leads to said page.
Web browsers are widely used programs today, since without them you couldn't surf the Internet. Some come pre-installed on our computers (such as Internet Explorer on Windows), while others we must download online (such as Google Chrome) or install them in some other way.
A web browser does nothing other than connect through the Internet with the server where the information we are looking for is, and request the design and visual assembly instructions that allow it to recover the text, images and the ordering of the images. themselves, 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 characteristics and compatible with one or another Operating System.
See also: WWW
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 which in some cases can cost us money, while search engines are online services that help us find the information we want in the vast universe of the Internet.
In other words, we cannot access a search engine, such as Google or Bing, if we do not first have a browser with which to access the Internet. Likewise, Having only the search engine would require us to know exactly the URL address of each page we want to visit, and that could be very complicated. So it is better to only learn the search engine of our choice and use it to get the information we need.
Web browser examples
The most popular and common browsers currently are 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 lighter and faster programs.
- Internet Explorer. Designed by Microsoft, it is the explorer that comes installed in its versions of Microsoft Windows, although it has been updated to remain competitive.
- Mozilla Firefox. Another very popular browser, the first to have a tab design that allowed you to manage different browsing windows at the same time, was for a time the king of Internet browsers.
- AppleSafari. Safari is the browser of choice for MacIntosh computers, as well as smartphones and all Apple products.
- Opera An extremely simple and fast browser, whose characteristics make it ideal for smartphones and tablets, as it takes up little space and demands few resources.