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A cache is a place to put or hold things and this is no different in the computing world. The browser cache isn't unique to any one browser. In fact the cache concept has been around longer than the web browser. In computing terms it's always meant to indicate some temporary storage space in either memory or disk. Whichever internet browser you're using, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari, Opera or some other browser each of them contains this cache or temporary storage space. The storage space in this case contains or holds pieces of information about the different websites you've visited over time. If you've spent time searching the internet for good deals on car parts, reading restaurant reviews or doing research for a science project, some information about all of those sites you've checked, will be stored on your system. This information does take up space on your computer but most of these files are very small in size about 1k. Some of the files could be larger, image and sound files will take up more space. The basic idea behind the cache is to speed up the loading of a web page. If some or all of the information about a particular website is known to your system, that page can be displayed faster than if the browser had to contact the site and retrieve the same information again. The more information your system knows about the website the faster it can load. The amount of space dedicated to the cache is something that can be configured through the browser settings. All of the browsers will have recommended settings that will try and balance optimizing speed with available resources. When memory and disk space are limited you may have to sacrifice speed. This balance isn't too difficult to achieve as the amount of memory and disk space grows with each new generation of computer. There are some maintenance things to keep in mind. Even if you have terabytes of space to allocate to the cache, it will take a long time but eventually it will fill up. As things on a particular site change over time the cached information on your system hasn't. In both of these cases it would be necessary to clear the cache or delete the temporary files. In the first example it would be to reclaim need disk space and in the second to make sure the most current version of a website is loaded. Through each of the browsers settings you can easily delete these files. Remember that the cache is just that, a place to store things.

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