Web Browser

A web browser, or simply "browser," is an application used to access and view websites. Common web browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.

The primary function of a web browser is to render HTML, the code used to design or "mark up" webpages. Each time a browser loads a web page, it processes the HTML, which may include text, links, and references to images and other items, such as cascading style sheets and JavaScript functions. The browser processes these items, then renders them in the browser window.

Early web browsers, such as Mosaic and Netscape Navigator, were simple applications that rendered HTML, processed form input, and supported bookmarks. As websites have evolved, so have web browser requirements. Today's browsers are far more advanced, supporting multiple types of HTML (such as XHTML and HTML 5), dynamic JavaScript, and encryption used by secure websites.

The capabilities of modern web browsers allow web developers to create highly interactive websites. For example, Ajax enables a browser to dynamically update information on a webpage without the need to reload the page. Advances in CSS allow browsers to display a (responsive website| responsive_web_design) layouts and a wide array of visual effects. Cookies allow browsers to remember your settings for specific websites.

While web browser technology has come a long way since Netscape, browser compatibility issues still remain a problem. Since browsers use different rendering engines, websites may not appear the same across multiple browsers. In some cases, a website may work fine in one browser, but not function properly in another. Therefore, it is smart to install multiple browsers on your computer so you can use an alternate browser if necessary.

A browser is software that is used to access the internet. A browser lets you visit websites and do activities within them like login, view multimedia, link from one site to another, visit one page from another, print, send and receive email, among many other activities. The most common browser software titles on the market are: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google's Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple's Safari, and Opera. Browser availability depends on the operating system your computer is using (for example: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Ubuntu, Mac OS, among others). When you type a web page address such as www.allaboutcookies.org into your browser, that web page in its entirety is not actually stored on a server ready and waiting to be delivered. In fact each web page that you request is individually created in response to your request.

You are actually calling up a list of requests to get content from various resource directories or servers on which the content for that page is stored. It is rather like a recipe for a cake - you have a shopping list of ingredients (requests for content) that when combined in the correct order bakes a cake (the web page).The page maybe made up from content from different sources.Images may come from one server, text content from another, scripts such as date scripts from another and ads from another. As soon as you move to another page, the page that you have just viewed disappears. This is the dynamic nature of websites.