What Is A Web Browser?

Microsoft Has A New Web Browser, But Many Of You Still Don't Know What A Web Browser Is

One of the things that frustrates me the most; as someone whom is trying to educate novices about computers; is that not only have people not learned the foundations or basics of computer usage, but they have little understanding of the terminology, and much of the time do not know what they are looking at on the screen at any point in time.

All they see are words and pictures. They fail to understand that when you are typing a letter, you are looking at Word Processor (usually Microsoft Word). When you are looking at Google, you are looking at a Website in a Web Browser. When you are looking at the Calculator App, you are looking at an App.

Each Of The products You see below, are "web browsers". 

You probably have one or even two or three of these icons on your desktop. They are called a "Web Browser", and they allow you to browse the world wide web (the internet). 

Each is created by a different company and each company would prefer you use theirs instead of the other. Its up to YOU which one you want to use.

For simplicity purposes, I usually try to keep people on the one that comes with the computer to begin with. This is Microsoft Edge.

Chrome, Firefox, Edge. They all do the same thing. They allow you to go to websites. The only reason to use one over the other is that you may prefer the look and feel of one or the other.

I don't normally try to convince anyone to wander over to other browsers, because for most of MY customers it can only serve to cause confusion.

Its their KIDS that come in for the weekend, that try to change everything and I'm the one that gets to come in later to clear up the confusion.

A web browser is a piece of software (App, Application, Program) that displays websites

Googles Browser is called "Google Chrome" which should not be confused with their website which is called Google.com. The company "Mozilla" has a browser called "Firefox", and Microsoft has a browser called "Edge".

When I ask folks what a website is, 99% can't answer that one. This is what happens when technology comes at you as fast as it has, and everyone (mostly the older gen) is just struggling to keep up.

A website is a collection of pages that contain information. Websites are viewed by using an app called a "web browser"

Bing.com is a website. Chathamcomputer.com is a website. Capecodonline.com is a website. Every company, small store, and many regular people in in the world own and operates these Internet Properties called websites. Even YOU whoever you are, can have your own website which can be viewed using a web browser by anyone who has the Internet.

I can use ANY web browser, to view ANY website.

If I open Microsoft Edge, I can go up to the address bar at the top of the browser and type in a web address www.chathamcomputer.com and it will take me to that website. The same applies for Firefox and Chrome and any other web browser you choose to use.

Google.com And Google Chrome Are Two Different Things

Google got famous by indexing the Web making it so we could search the entire internet for WEBSITES.

Their WEBSITE www.google.com changed the world and the way we acquire information on the Internet.

We call it the World Wide Web thus the www in every website name. It is a spider web of websites, get it? An inter-NET of websites. A collection of websites. THE INTERNET.

This is something I constantly have to explain to folks on a daily basis. It's the reason I wrote this article. The vast majority of my customers do not know the difference between Googles website, and Googles web browser.

Below is a video trying to explain everything i just put into words above