Topics / The Internet / Web Browser
Web Browser
The role of a web browser
A web browser is a software program which allows the user to request and retrieve web pages (and other resources) from a webserver on the world wide web.
Web browsers interpret (convert) the HTML code from the retrieved webpage and display it to the user in a format they can understand.
The browser has to manage a range of protocols to do this.
Typical features of a web browser
- Bookmarks – to save the address of your favourite websites
- Back button – to go back to the previous page you viewed
- History – to access a list of pages you historically visited
- Multiple tabs/windows – the ability to view multiple pages at once in different tabs
- Page refresh – make the page refresh by reloading it
- Home page – the ability to choose the initial website that loads when you open the browser
- Address bar – a place to directly type in the URL, if you know it
Examples of web browser software
- Google Chrome
- Microsoft Edge
- Mozilla Firefox
- Opera
- Safari
- Internet Explorer