The World Wide Web is very wide and powerful. Over the past decades, the Internet has affected all of our lives, from how we work to how we interact with each other. For this reason, it is very important to know the tools we use to access the Internet and to know how they work. You must have heard the names of browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, etc. In this article, we want to know what a browser is and how the famous browsers used by billions of people work every day.
Table of Contents
What is a browser?
Internet browsers are software programs that allow you to view and interact with website pages. The main purpose of Internet browsers is to display the codes of web pages stored on servers in the form of text, images, video and audio.
History of browsers
The first browser was introduced in 1990, which was called WorldWideWeb. Of course, later its name was changed to Nexus. Although this browser was also used to display web pages, it was far from the browsers we work with today. In the 90s, the Internet environment was text-based and users without technical knowledge could not use it. Because of this, a limited number of people had the ability to access the Internet.
But little by little changes started in 1992 with the introduction of Mosaic browser. Mosaic browser made browsing the web easier with its graphic and attractive environment. And most importantly, it was no longer necessary for everyone to know programming to access the Internet. Therefore, the number of Internet users gradually increased, and companies followed people on the Internet. E-commerce, social media and many other things that are an integral part of the Internet today were created under the influence of the first graphical browser.
Modern internet browsers
Today, Internet browsers have become powerful tools that allow users to access their favorite websites in a secure environment with high speed and quality. The most popular browsers in the world are:
- Google Chrome
- Safari
- Microsoft Edge
- Firefox
- Opera
Google Chrome is the most popular browser in 2022.
How do browsers work?
When you type the URL of a website into the browser’s address bar, the browser retrieves the page’s information from the web server. The browser receives the page’s file written in a programming language, such as HTML or JavaScript. This file contains instructions on how to display information on the page. In the next step, the browser translates and interprets this file and displays it to the user. This whole process is done in a few seconds.
Common terms in browsers
Cookies
Websites store your information in files called cookies. These cookies will be stored in your browser until the next time you visit the site again. As soon as you visit a website again, this cookie file is read by the browser and identifies you. For example, when you enter a website and your username and password are saved, this is possible with the help of cookies.
Cookies also store details of your information. Information such as your interests, your behavior patterns in browsers and… There is another type of cookies called third-party cookies. These cookies are from sites you have never visited but can track you from other websites to collect information about you, which is sometimes sold to large companies. You can block these cookies, although not all browsers allow you to do so.
Private browsing
Almost all major browsers in the world have a private browser environment, which will not store the history information of the websites you visit in this environment. Most people assume that browsers do not display the information and history of visited websites to governments and advertising companies if they use a private environment. If this is not the case. The advantage of using the private browser section is that if you use shared computers, it can protect your personal and confidential information from the view of other users of that computer.
Extensions
Major browsers such as Chrome and Firefox allow users to add certain features to the browser by installing extensions or plug-ins. Extensions are small software that you can add to the browser to personalize the browser’s performance and add new features such as a dictionary and different themes.
Domain Name System (DNS)
Every website has a complex string of numbers and letters known as an IP address, which computers use to provide a web address to an end user. The Domain Name System (DNS) is a technical process that those domain names (example.com) are translated to their corresponding Internet Protocol (IP) address (208.109.80.196).
Server
A server is a physical computer that works without any interruption so that your website is always available to anyone who wants to see it. In other words, a server is a computer that connects other web users from anywhere in the world to your site.