Web Browser
The Web World is full of information
which needs to be delivered to the people as per their requirement. The
information is fed into the servers. To access the information stored inside the
servers we need the internet. After that, we
need a platform that can give us access to retrieve the information
stored.
Such a platform that enables the user to access information from the World Wide Web is called a Web Browser. In technical terms, a Web Browser is application software that enables the user to
retrieves/browses/view from the World
Wide Web stored in the servers. The first Web Browser was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee. The first graphical browser was named, Mosaic which was developed in 1993.
What is a
Web Browser
When we talk
about a Web Browser or we can
simply say Browser. It can be defined as application software that enables us
to browse or view or retrieve information on the websites. The user enters the
required information in the search option of the Web Browser. The Web browser fetches the information from the World Wide Web stored in the servers and displays the result
set in the form of a list.
This
information can be in the form of text, image, video, news, navigation, or any
kind of graphical display. A lot of time the Web Browser is confused with the Search Engines. But the two
are totally different elements of the Web
World. Still, they go hand in hand.
A Web Browser is device friendly
therefore can be used on different devices. Let’s say desktop, laptop, tablet,
as well as smartphones. The user’s query for information is answered in the
form of web pages. As the information is stored in the form of content which is
framed in web pages and web pages all together constitute a website. The
websites are stored in the web servers. When any user makes an inquiry for
accessing the content of the website then it is made available at the user end
with the means of HyperText Transfer Protocol.
Almost all Web
Browsers have an internal cache memory where the frequently accessed
web pages are stored. This feature is available in order to save the time spent
on loading the pages. The cache memory provided with the browser is large
enough where large pictures can also be loaded. The cache is provided so that the
content is not retrieved from the server again and again.
Why do we
need a Web Browser
The main function of Web Browser is to
fetch the information. We can say
content from the World Wide Web
stored in web servers and provide to the end-user. So without Web Browser the concept of the
World Wide Web cannot resist the Web
World.
The websites
or web pages are designed and written in code. Now the Web Browser fetches this code and presents it in a
user-friendly form, as code is not understandable by the users. The code runs
in the back-end and the user access the front-end part. Since the first Web Browser came into the
picture, until till date, browsers have developed outstandingly and became
advanced with each heading step.
History
The history
of Web Browsers is not too
long but just two decades back. The first Web
Browser was introduced in 1990 and it was called World Wide Web. In
an upcoming couple of years, in 1993 the first graphical user
interface browser was launched with the name of Mosiac. It was also the first
one to become a popular browser. It made the Web World look attractive and hands-on for the user.
During the 1990s there was immense growth in the Web World. Marc who headed the team
Mosiac founded his own company and launch a Web Browser in 1994 with the name Netscape Navigator, which
gained the topmost popularity.
In 1995 Navigator got its competitor Internet
Explorer by Microsoft. Internet Explorer marks its place as it was packaged
with the operating system of Windows and usage was free. In 1998 Mozilla
foundation was founded which created an open-source browser.
In 2003
Apple’s Safari was launched, it did not gain any suitability outside Apple’s
environment. In 2004 Mozilla published Firefox. In 2008 Chrome was launched by
Google took over Internet Explorer’s market and since 2012 it marked its
place at the top in terms of popularity.
In 2015 Edge
was embedded with Windows 10 by Microsoft. With the popularity of the internet
usage and refinement of the websites, browsers have technically improved their
versions by working on JavaScript, CSS, and HTML along with the user
interactive media in order to meet the needs of the World Wide Web.
Features of
Web Browser
There are
certain features which are required to qualify as a browser. These features will
be found in all the browsers. But all browsers cannot specialize in all
advanced features. Every Web Browser specializes in one or two advanced
features.
The qualifying
features of Web Browser are as below:
·
Home
button
·
Stop
Button
·
Navigation
Button
·
Refresh
button
·
Address
bar
·
Bookmark
Button
·
Tabbed
browsing
·
Integrated
Search
Advanced
Features of Web Browser are as follows:
·
Proxy
Caching
·
Hands
free Transparency
·
Purpose-build
packaging
·
Synchronization
·
Deep
Extension
· A separate process for each tab
·
Query
selector all caching
·
Emphasis
on Energy Efficiency
·
Social
Browsing
·
Easy
user-agent alterations
·
Email
·
Jump
list and site pinning
0 Comments