subject: Basics of web browsers [print this page] Basics of web browsers Basics of web browsers
Basics of web browsers
Internet is a sea of information and to steer around and to explore that sea we use a tool known as web browsers. This is actually one of the most widely used software of our time. It is a software application that we use to view and interact with web pages. Each activity on the internet is done by web browsers. Web browsers have became a long way from the days of the first internet web browser, Mosaic and the like. Today varieties of web browsers are available. The prominent browsers available for the personal computers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera Netscape, and so on. Microsoft Internet Explorer is losing its hold on the browser market place. Nowadays, Mozilla Firefox and Opera are becoming very famous among the web hosting.
The basic purpose of the browser is to display the user requested web pages and other resources of internet. When a user enters the unique web address in the browser, the browser retrieves all the web pages and displays it. The web browsers communicate with web servers primarily using HTTP to fetch web pages. HTTP allows web browsers to submit information to web servers as well as fetch web pages from them. The most commonly used HTTP is HTTP/1.1. The web pages are located by means of a URL. This is considered as an address, beginning with http. In the beginning web browsers supported only a very simple version of HTML. The rapid development of web browsers led to the development of HTML into more complex avatars. Modern web browsers support standard based HTML and XHTML which should display in the same way across all browsers.
In today's world web browsers have established themselves as a most user-friendly and essential technology tool for surfing the internet. The visitors can view the content from different file formats, interact with other web sites, and incorporate appropriate technology to view or download or upload multi-media content and streaming media using web browsers. Web browsers of today are mere messenger between client and server. They are full-fledged programs capable of using fuzzy logic to select most appropriate content and help the web visitor t browse safely and pleasurably.
