A web browser is considered a software
application that allows people to access, retrieve
and view information on the internet. The
information that may be “browsed” can be in the
form of text content on a web page, an image,
video, audio etc. The most popular web
browsers currently in use are Firefox, Google
Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari.
HOW DOES A BROWSER WORK?
The process begins with the user inputting a URL
(Uniform Resource Locator) like http, https, ftp,
file etc. (example: http://www.computer-
geek.net/).. The browser then displays the
resource by passing the HTML (main markup
language for web pages) to the browser’s layout
engine to be translated from markup to an
interactive document that you can view on your
screen.
WHAT IS A SEARCH ENGINE?
The main purpose of a search engine is to
search for information on the Internet. They are
software programs that search for websites
based on keywords that the user types in. The
search engine then goes through their databases
of information in order to locate the information
you are looking for. The main search engines
currently be used are Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
HOW DOES A SEARCH ENGINE WORK?
Search engines send out “web crawlers” or
“spiders” (automated computer programs that
browse the internet in a methodical and
automated manner) to create a copy of all the
web pages they have been to so the search
engine can then index the pages to create web
site listings that facilitate faster searches. A
user types a query into the search engine and
the search engine then sorts through millions of
pages in its database to find a match to that
specific query. The search engine then produces
the results to your query in a ranked order
according to relevancy.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
You basically use a Browser to access
information on the Internet while you use a
Search Engine to point you in the right direction
of a website that relates to the words you type
in. You actually have to use a Browser to get to
a search engine, for example; typing in
www.google.com which will then take you to the
google web page. A very clever person used this
analogy – If you are sitting in your car, the
browser would be your windshield and the
steering wheel would be the search engine.
