What is a Browser?

A browser is used to view and navigate Web pages and other information on the World Wide Web. Given a pointer to a piece of information on the Net (a URL), any Web browser has to be able to access that information or operate in some way based on the contents of that pointer. This means that the browser must be able to communicate with the Web server using the HTTP protocol. Browsers can often communicate with FTP and Gopher servers, e-mail servers or protocols as well.

What the Browser does most often, however, is deal with formatting and displaying Web documents. Each Web page is a file written in a language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language) that includes the text of the page, its structure, and links to other documents, images, or other media.

The browser takes the information it gets from the Web server and formats and displays it for your system. Different browsers may format and display the same file differently, depending on the capabilities of that system and the default layout options for the browser itself. Depending on the browser you use and the features it includes, you may also be able to play multimedia files, view and interact with Java applets, read your mail, or use other advanced features.

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What is Internet?
What is WWW?
What is a Browser?
What are popular Browsers?
What is a Protocol?
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