What is a web browser?   

A web browser is a program that was developed to provide an interface between the user and the various resources on the World Wide Web. These resources can be a web page, video, or other form of media used for interaction. While web browsers are mainly designed to access the Web, files and other information in local or private networks can also be accessed through them.

The main function of a web browser is to offer a way for the user to get the information he wants, usually by displaying web pages. It starts by entering a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as http, https, ftp, etc., to the address line of the web browser. This categorizes a resource to find and then displayed using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Other prefixes not known to the web browser will be passed to other programs that can interpret it. By using HTTP or other prefixes, web browsers can correspond with Web servers to find, retrieve, and display web pages.

Web pages are actually composed of series of commands, as contrary to what most people think that they are just made up of graphics and texts. They are written in languages that the web browser can read and interpret, such as HTML and XML. The web browser processes these codes then displays the result on the screen. If you want to check the source code of a web page, right click anywhere on it and select the "view source" option. You will most likely see a mark up language called HTML.

A web page may include hyperlinks (usually underlined and blue colored texts). Because a hyperlink includes a URL or an address, the web browser goes to the web page as specified by the link once it is clicked-on by the user.

There are numerous web browsers to choose from. The most commonly used browser is Internet Explorer which is bundled with the operating system Windows. Other popular web browsers are Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari. These browsers have interfaces designed to support a wide range of protocols and file formats while the less known browsers has limited selection of file formats which they can process.

The ability to open numerous web pages at once is one of the common features of leading web browsers today. They do this by creating tabs in the same window or by opening another browser window. Another common feature is the pop-up blocker wherein they stop unwanted programs such as advertisements from showing on the screen without the permission of the user. Bookmarks or "favourites" is also a nice feature of web browsers that is very useful. It enables the user to quickly go to the web page he frequently visits.

Leading web browsers offers a lot of features and they are capable of processing any kind of information that a web page may contain. Aside from the normal texts, they can easily process audio, video, and animations. Most of them offer "plug-ins" which will add more to their already numerous features. However, there are certain types of files they cannot support and when they encounter such files the web browser will simply present the user with options to save the file or open it with another program.

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