What is a Browser?

A browser is software that enables you to access information located on the World Wide Web (WWW). The term browser was used as a generic term for text-based user interfaces that let you view text files online. By the time Mosaic, (the first Web browser that enabled a user to view graphics) was developed in 1993, the term browser stuck.

Technically, a Web browser is a client program that uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to make requests to Web servers (computers) throughout the Internet on behalf of the browser. Currently, the most popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. A commercial version of the original browser, Mosaic, is still in use.