Browser

=Web Browser= Author: Thomas Ambrosia

A browser or web browser is a software the retrieves, sends, displays, and changes information on the internet or world wide web. There are many different types of web browsers (internet explorer is the most common followed by Mozilla Firefox) and they all preform at different speeds and look different but display the same information from the internet. The information that a browser shows or displays can be in the form of a picture, a web page, blog, movie, audio, text, and may other things. All of these are accessible in a browser but there are things that certain browsers have and certain don't such as the ability to mark a web page for later use, pull up tabs instead of new windows, and the speed that some have and others lack.

History
The history of web browsers is a long and complicated chain but it all started after the invention of hypertext. Then in 1991 Tim Berners-Lee invented the first web browser called the WorldWideWeb. Followed by Berners-Lee's browser was a browser called Mosaic invented in 1993. Mosaic was different because it was the first graphical browser. The creation of Mosaic by Marc Andreesson "led to an explosion" of usage. Andreesson later made his own company called Netscape and later "released the Mosaic-influenced Netscape Navigator in 1994, which quickly became the world's most popular browser, accounting for 90% of all web use at its peak."

Microsoft responded by making their own browser called internet explorer which is now the most widly used browser and became so in 1995 when it was created. While Internet Explorer was also highly influenced by Mosaic, it was able to overtake Netscape Nevigator because Microsoft put the browser in with new computers.

Soon after the many other leading web browsers were invented but that is a whole other story.

How it Works
When you pull up a web browser such as internet explorer by clicking on the desktop shortcut or icon, Bios sends information from your mouse to your CPU which then retrieves it form the HDD. Then you type in a URL and that is sent in a packet and is usually split up between packets depending on the prefix such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, etc. The prefix stands for a certain protocol that retrieves the information from the site of the URL. It then goes through a complicated process but finally the website data is un-packeted by the web browser on the persons computer and the data is displayed on the screen.

Pictures

From Left to Right: Top: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari Bottom: Netscape Navigator, Mosaic, Google Chrome