browser

A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI/URL) and may be a web page, image, video or other piece of content. Hyperlinks present in resources enable users easily to navigate their browsers to related resources.

Web browsers consist of a user interface, layout engine, rendering engine, JavaScript interpreter, UI backend, networking component and data persistence component. These components achieve different functionalities of a web browser and together provide all capabilities of a web browser.

Most major web browsers have these user interface elements in common:

• Back and forward buttons to go back to the previous resource and forward respectively.

• A refresh or reload button to reload the current resource.

• A stop button to cancel loading the resource. In some browsers, the stop button is merged with the reload button.

• A home button to return to the user’s home page.

• An address bar to input the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the desired resource and display it.

• A search bar to input terms into a search engine. In some browsers, the search bar is merged with the address bar.

• A status bar to display progress in loading the resource and also the URI of links when the cursor hovers over them, and page zooming capability.

• The viewport, the visible area of the webpage within the browser window.

• The ability to view the HTML source for a page.

The major web browsers are Firefox, Internet Explorer/Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari.