We use the Internet to get information online and extract a lot of information every day, That is why today we will know what a web browser is. Hardly anyone knows what the Internet is. Anyone who has a smartphone surfs or browses the Internet every day to get a lot of information. In this way, we can connect with the world, and apart from this, we can also do many other things. Be it filling out the form for any competitive exam or applying for a job,. But do you know what medium we use to connect to the Internet? If you don’t know, then by reading this, you will completely understand how a web browser works. What is its specialty, and how many types are there?
Apart from this, we will also give you a list of commonly used web browsers. The Internet does not work just by connecting to it; rather, it requires software that is capable of connecting to the Internet. You must have seen many such apps on mobile that work only by connecting to the internet, like WhatsApp and the YouTube app, but tell me, can you open any website in these apps? So the answer would be no; for this, we need a browser. So let us now know what this web browser is and also what its definition is.
What Is a Web Browser?
A web browser is a software program or application that we use to find websites, access them, and read and benefit from the content within those websites. Just as Excel is a spreadsheet program and Word is used to create documents, similarly, a web browser is a program that uses the Internet.
We never discuss anything about it, we just click an icon on our mobile or computer and start using the internet, and this is how it goes. It is like the same thing that happens when you put the key in the bike and start riding it without even trying to know how many CCs the engine of this bike has and what its features are. A browser is a group of many structured codes that together complete a series of tasks so that the information appears on the display. browser
Definition of Web Browser
A web browser is a software program that allows a user to find, access, and view web pages. Generally, a web browser is called a browser in short form. It is used to view and access websites on the Internet. Apart from this, the content is written using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and XML (Extensible Markup Language).
How Does A Web Browser Work?
A browser is a software program that searches and delivers the content of the World Wide Web, including web pages, images, videos, and other files, to the user. Talking about the client/server model, in this case, the browser works like a client, which runs in a computer and sends requests to the webserver to get information. The web server sends the information back to the web browser and displays the result on the computer. Apart from this, the same work is supported on all those devices.
Today’s browsers are completely programmed in such a way that they can interpret and display HTML web pages, applications, Javascript, AJAX, and all types of content hosted on the web server. Many browsers also provide plugins to their users to enhance their functionality by displaying multimedia information including audio and video.
Web browser components
User Interface:
The user interface inside the browser is the place from which the user can interact with it. This includes the address bar, Home Button, refresh button, stop button, back and next button, etc. Apart from this, the other part, except the window where the requested web page is displayed, comes under this.
Browser Engine:
As the name suggests, the rendering engine is responsible for rendering web pages on the browser screen. The rendering engine renders HTML, XML, documents, and images that are formatted using CSS, through which the generated layout appears on the user interface. But you can also change the layout as per your wishes by using plugins. Can. Different browsers have different types of rendering engines.
Google Chrome: Blink
Internet Explorer: Trident
Chrome iPhone and Safari: Webkit
Mozilla Firefox: Gecko
Rendering engine:
It works like a bridge between the user interface and the rendering engine. Whatever is input through the user interface also queries and manipulates the rendering engine.
Networking:
Components that retrieve URLs using the common Internet protocols of HTTP and FTP. Networking handles all matters of Internet communication and security. The network component also uses a cache of retrieved documents to reduce network traffic.
Javascript interpreter:
It interprets and executes whatever JavaScript code is embedded inside the website. The interpreted results are sent to the rendering engine for display. If the script is external, then the resource is first fetched from the network. The parser is held until the script is executed.
Data Storage
This is a kind of solid layer. The browser supports storage mechanisms such as local storage, IndexedDB, WebSQL, and filesystems. This is a storage location present on the local drive of the computer where the browser is installed. It manages user data such as cache, cookies, bookmarks, and preferences.
UserInterface Backend:
The user backend is used to create basic user widget boxes. The work can be done quickly and easily by using widgets at your convenience.
Difference Between Browser And Server – Difference Between Web Browser And Web Server In Hindi
Often, there is a dilemma among people as to what a web browser is and what a web server is. Both are considered similar, but they are completely different from each other. Now we are going to explain this difference.
- A software program acts as an interface between a server and a client, whereas a web server is a program or computer that accepts the client’s data.
- The browser sends HTTP requests and receives HTTP responses, while the web server receives HTTP requests and sends HTTP responses.
- There is no processing model in the web browser, whereas in the web server, the processing model is process-based, thread-based, or hybrid-based.
Features Of Web Browser
Every web browser is different from each other and wants to give the best experience to its users. But there are some features without which the user’s experience can be bad instead of good. So here we will learn about all those basic features that are required in a web browser.
- A web browser should be adept at accessing web pages on the Internet and should be capable of finding and displaying all types of websites.
- On the web, you must be able to follow a hyperlink and be allowed to type a URL to follow it.
- Commands should be easy to access, such as in the form of menus, icons, and buttons.
- Options for getting online help should be easily available.
- When you access the World Wide Web and visit many websites, some of them we like very much and are also useful for us. So that we can easily access those sites again, they provide the facility to go back to them in two ways. One way is by going back to the current session, and the other way is by bookmarking these sites, One can easily go back to them again. You can maintain a list of World Wide Web pages by using bookmarks. Using this list, you can easily visit your stored favorite websites at any time.
- One of its main features is that, along with providing information on the current page, one can also search for other information on the World Wide Web.
- In this way, you can print any information from any web page and send the document to other websites through email.
- It should be capable of handling text, images, links, and digital videos.
- Apart from this, a good browser should be able to run animated content.
- There should be different plugins so that you can enable the options as per your needs and complete your work.
- It should also have the facility to enable cache so that it becomes easier to load the web page and the load on the server is also reduced.
History Of Web Browser
- The world’s first web browser was the World Wide Web, which was created in 1990. The name of the company that made it was W3C, whose full name was World Wide Web Consortium, and its director was Tim Berners Lee. The World Wide Web was actually the Internet, so the name had no meaning, hence its name was changed to Nexus. The situation was not like today because, at that time, it was the only browser through which the Internet was operated.
- After that, another internet surfing software was created whose name was Lynx, and it was based on text in which graphic content was not displayed.
- To overcome this problem, a new surfer Mosaic was created in 1993 which supported images. In this way, Mosaic became the most popular browser in the world at that time.
- In 1995, Microsoft launched a browser on the market, which we know today as Internet Explorer. This was the first Internet surfing program created by Microsoft, which people still use today.
- After this, Opera started doing the project on a research basis in 1994, and then in the next 2 years, it was made available for people to use. In a way, this was the beginning of the browser war when new internet surfing software started being launched in the market one after the other, and the main competition at that time was between Internet Explorer 3 and Navigator 3 because Microsoft brought completely new features with Internet Explorer.
- Instead of using Navigator, Apple launched the Safari browser for Macintosh computers.
- Right after this, Mozilla made Firefox available to the people in the market.
- Apple started Mobile Safari on its mobile phones, and thus it remained dominant in iOS.
- After this, in 2008, Google Chrome was first introduced by Google. Today you know very well who rules the market and whom people like the most.
- To make mobile web surfing better for people, Opera Mini was launched in the market in 2011, and it also became quite popular among people.
- Microsoft launched Microsoft Edge in 2015 to give tough competition to Google.
Types Of Web Browser
List of main web browsers currently in use
- Internet Explorer
- Google Chrome
- Mozilla Firefox
- Opera
- UC Browser
- Safari
- Microsoft Edge
- Opera Mini (Mobile)
In Short
How did you like this post? What is a web browser? Through this post, we also told you what the definition of a web browser is and how many types there are, and you also learned what its history is. Although there are many types of web browsers on the market today that help us do our work easily, have you ever tried to know how they work?
We also discussed here what the difference is between a web browser and a web server. We use it every day to do many of our tasks, without it, we cannot even go to any website. A list of some of the most commonly used browsers today is given. I hope you liked it, and if you found this post helpful, then share it as much as possible with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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