How to use a computer: What is a Web Browser?

This is the second in a series of articles in which we explain some of the most common and fundamental terms used in modern computing.

We hope these articles will help people who are new to computing or who are still not entirely comfortable either with using computers or with computer terminology.In particular, we hope they will help people get the most out of Prelude Accounts, our online accounting software.

What is a Web Browser?

A web browser is a computer program that is used to view web pages that are hosted on the internet. It is primarily and almost exclusively used to access content that is not on your computer but stored elsewhere on the worldwide web.

To use a web browser, your computer must be connected to the internet and you must have a web browser installed. Most commercial computers you can buy will have a web browser pre-installed, along with an operating system. With PC computers, it is highly likely that the web browser available to you will be Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, whereas Apple Mac computers will favourApple’s own Safari.

Internet Explorer and Safari are not the only web browsers available. Many people choose to use third party web browsers, believing them to be superior in performance and inter-connectivity with other devices they may have connected to the internet. Two of the most popular web browsers areGoogle’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox.

What do I need to know about Web Browsers?

Web browsers are very useful tools with many features that you should familiarise yourself with if you are to make the most of them.

Arguably the most important thing to know about a web browser is the address bar (or URL bar),which is the long white box normally at the top of a web browser, into which you would type the web address of the web page that you want to visit. A web address is normally a series of words and characters strung together by full stops and punctuation that uniquely identifies a web page on the worldwide web.

Most web addresses begin with the prefix ‘http://www.’ and end with a suffix such as ‘.com’, ‘.co.uk’ or ‘.org’. Web addresses can be created and purchased by individuals, and are often customised to reflect the branding and location of the company or organisation they represent. For example, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s main web site address is www.bbc.co.uk.

Often, you will see the terms ‘web site’ and ‘web page’ used interchangeably. Indeed, I do so in this article once or twice. Generally, a web site consists of a collection of individual web pages, in the same way that a leaflet or brochure contains pages. Typically, a web site will have a home page (like the BBC one above, itself a web page) that contains a menu of links to help you navigate to the web addresses of other web pages in the site.

If you do not know the address of the web page you are looking for and do not know addresses of web sites that will cover the topics that interest you, there are special web sites called Search Engines that will help you find an appropriate web page. There are several popular search engines, but by far the most popular is Google (www.google.co.uk), followed by Bing (www.bing.com) and Yahoo! (www.yahoo.co.uk).

Search Engines have an empty white box that is similar to the address bar at the top of the browser, but instead of entering a web address, you type words and expressions that are relevant to what you are looking for (these are known as ‘search terms’). You then press the search icon (normally a magnifying glass), and the search engine will present you with a list of web pages that it has identified as being relevant to your search terms. This list is known as the ‘search results’ and all the items listed are ‘hyperlinked’, so you can view each specific web page by clicking on the underlined text or name of the web page in this list.

Note that Search Engines will search for content on the internet, not on your computer. If you are looking for files kept on your own computer, you must use a different search function connected with your operating system (the program that helps you interact with your computer).

One of the most useful features of a web browser is the ability to ‘bookmark’ web sites that you visit regularly or that you want to revisit on a later occasion. Once bookmarked, the user can simply click on the permanent link in the browser that has been created, which will then take the web browser straight to the bookmarked web page in question, without having to type the address again. You can also categorise and file bookmarks on your web browser, with the bookmark tabs or folders being listed horizontally under the address bar.

Unless you change the settings, most web browsers keep a detailed log of the web pages you have visited (known as your ‘History’), which is useful if you want to revisit a web page you have visited previously, but for which you cannot remember the web address.

Increasingly, computer programs are operated through web browsers rather than through your computer itself. This is to do with the fact that the programs are hosted and run through the internet, meaning that they can be accessed by many devices (not just one) and that your computer is not slowed down by having to store a computer program. It also means that different computers can use these programs regardless of their make or model or of their specifications (within reason).

Prelude Accounts (an online accounting software package) is one such program that is hosted and accessed through a web browser rather than kept (‘hosted’) and operated from your computer itself.