by Avinash Mendha

Created on: March 20, 2009   Last Updated: October 04, 2010

Before I write about web browsers, I would love to mention a simple definition of web browser. A web browser is a link between a User and a Website, and it is used to display web pages.

What is a web browser?

When you sit down and surf web pages, you are using a web browser. A web browser is a computer program (software) that is used for viewing web sites and web pages. A web browser is a software that enables users to access the World Wide Web (WWW).

How it works?

When you insert an address in the URL bar, the browser sends a request for the access of a particular page you requested, then the web server replies back to the request made by the user. This information is sent by the web server to the browser in HTML or XHTML format, which is understood by the web browser and converted into a format which is easy to understand by the user. The communication between web browser and web server takes place via HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).

Browsers Available:

There are many browsers available, like Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple's Safari, Google Chrome, and many more. The most commonly used web browser is Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Microsoft Internet Explorer:  Microsoft Internet Explorer is the most poplular and commonly used browser in the world and is available for the Windows Operating System; comes preinstalled. There are many versions introduced by Microsoft for Internet Explorer, the latest one (at the time of writing) is Internet Explorer 8.

Mozilla Firefox: Firefox, developed by Mozilla Corporation, is the second most popular browser. It offers enhanced security and privacy.The browser is available for various operating systems including Windows, Linux, Macintosh and can be downloaded for free. Download here: Link

Google Chrome: Google Chrome, developed by Google is the latest web browser in the market. At the time of writing, it is available only for Windows Operating System and can be downloaded and installed in few minutes. Download here: Link

Opera: The opera web browser is credited to have introduced several features one of which includes the popular tab browsing. Download here: Link

Apple's Safari: Safari is the default web browser on Apple Macintosh systems. A year back, Apple released a version for the Windows Operating System, which is not so highly used. Download here: Link

These were the different browsers which are available in the market, and most widely used by the users of Internet. If you need any other information regarding browsers you can contact me. I will try to solve all your queries.

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