What is an external browser? What is a Browser - basics

Useful tips

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Basic browser functions

My permanent browser is Firefox, but in my work I often use others. I will give you the main features of an Internet browser using, as you guessed it, Firefox as an example, but they are practically no different from the functions of other browsers. And so, let's go.

You launch the browser by clicking on its shortcut with the mouse, and you are taken to your home page. In my case, it is the Yandex search engine (yandex.ru). This page always opens when the browser starts. You can also get to it at any time by simply clicking on the house icon in the upper right corner (circled in red in the picture) or by pressing simultaneously Alt keys and Home. , I think it’s clear.

It is recommended to set the home page to the one you visit most often, from which you would like to start your daily work on the Internet. Changing it is very easy. To do this, just click on “Firefox” in the upper left corner and enter Settings, as shown in the figure below.

A window will appear in front of you, in which in the “Home Page” field you need to enter the address of the required site, for example http://www.yandex.ru or http://vk.com. You can enter the address of absolutely any site. We figured out how to change the home page and what it is. Let's move on.

Since we're talking about website addresses, let's dwell on them. Each site is unique. You will never find sites with completely identical addresses. Let's make an analogy with real life. It is unlikely that there will be families living in different apartments or houses located at the same address.

The website address very often begins with “www”, but this part can be omitted. Next, separated by a dot, is the name of the site, for example, the same beloved “yandex”. We put another dot and write the end of the address: ru, com, net. org and others. In our case, we received the address of the Yandex search engine “www.yandex.ru”. To get to the site by its address, just enter it in address bar your browser.

For more quick access favorite sites were invented bookmarks. Just click on the star icon to the right of the address bar or press the Ctrl+D key combination, and a window will appear in which you need to enter the name of the bookmark, select the folder required for it and click “done”. You can bookmark absolutely any sites you like; for convenience, they can also be divided into folders. To view bookmarks, you need to click on the corresponding icon in the upper right corner in the case of Firefox, or in a slightly different way depending on the browser.

To make site navigation more convenient, there are tabs. If you want to have several Internet pages open at the same time, then be sure to use tabs. To open new tab Click on the plus sign (circled in red).

Most often the Internet is used for information search. Naturally, it is impossible to do this without a browser. Since you are reading this article now, you most likely already know how to search for information on the Internet. I recommend using the following for these purposes: search engines, like yandex.ru and google.ru. In your request, be as specific as possible about what you want to find. For example, if you live in Moscow and want to buy a car, write to search bar "car sales in Moscow".

Types of browsers

There are quite a lot of browsers, but only a few of them have gained popularity. Let's talk about them.

- one of the oldest browsers that has survived to this day. IE is part of Windows, which is probably why it has gained popularity around the world. Perhaps this is his main advantage. Despite the fact that it is being developed by specialists from Microsoft, Internet Explorer lags behind other browsers in many respects; it often displays sites incorrectly, does not support many modern standards, and its speed is not encouraging, although it has noticeably improved in new versions of the program.

Opera is a very old browser, has many different settings, functions and extensions, and is very fast. This browser, in my opinion, will be somewhat difficult for beginners, but if you understand it, you can safely make it the main one for work and entertainment. Personally, I haven't used it much, but I noticed a few negative points. Firstly, it displays some sites a little incorrectly, most often the problem is increasing the font size. Think, this error will be fixed in new versions. Secondly, when Opera first launched, for some reason it did not import bookmarks, passwords, history and other data from my other browsers. I still found this function, but the path to the profile with the data had to be specified manually. In my opinion, this is somewhat inconvenient. Maybe I did something wrong, I don’t deny this point, but the fact remains a fact. Yandex Browser, for example, coped with this task in no time. Thirdly, there was a case when I opened only one page, while neither the browser nor the computer was restarted by anything, after which Opera froze for about half a minute, maybe more. Of course, these are all coincidences, and this can happen with any browser, I’m just sharing my impressions of using them. In general, the browser is very good; it supports all, or almost all, modern standards and technologies.

— first appeared in 2002, is regularly updated, supports all modern standards, displays sites as correctly as possible, has many additional extensions and plugins that are easy to install and update. Firefox also has its drawbacks: sometimes the browser freezes for a while, sometimes even for a few minutes, after which its work may stop altogether, citing some kind of error. It also happens that the browser, in simple terms, is buggy. For example, now on some sites you have to manually enter logins and passwords every time, despite the fact that they are saved in the browser and should be displayed automatically. I also noticed such a glitch as the periodic loss of spell check: sometimes it disappears on its own and then appears on its own, without me doing anything. It's worth noting that Firefox has very good support, so all problems are often solved in new versions or in other ways, which can be found on the program forum.

- appeared relatively recently, in 2008, but has already gained popularity all over the world. Google Chrome can be described in three words: fast, simple and convenient. Despite its visual simplicity, the browser has all the necessary capabilities and supports all modern standards. Even a beginner can master it in a matter of minutes. Proof of the convenience of Google Chrome is the fact that many of the technical details first used in it were subsequently borrowed from it by other browsers. For example, tabs in browsers for a long time were located under the address bar, above which there was also a menu in the form of drop-down lists, as a result of which the browser header turned out to be quite cumbersome. If my memory serves me right, then for the first time in Chrome, the tabs were moved under the address bar, and the menu was moved to a completely different place.

- is the youngest browser on this list and in the world as a whole; at the time of writing, its age is only a month, but despite this it is actively gaining popularity, as a rule, among the Russian-speaking population. In my opinion, he has a great future, especially in Russia and the CIS. But if the Yandex company makes more effort, then the browser may go far beyond the borders of our country, although it’s hard to believe, we’ll wait and see. It combines all the advantages of modern browsers, and also has its own individual characteristics. For example, only in this browser did I see that the titles of Internet pages are displayed not only in the tab, but also in the address bar. In its appearance and interface, Yandex Browser is very similar to Google Chrome; they are also made on the same engine. The browser works very smoothly, quickly and without brakes, at least that’s how it behaved in my case. It is worth mentioning separately about the Yandex Browser security system, which was developed at Kaspersky Lab, as well as Turbo technology, which speeds up the loading of sites, which was created by Opera and will appear in the next versions of the program. I myself have not tested or verified these developments, since I have neither the opportunity nor the desire.

The list could also include a browser from Apple, but, as far as I know, its development and support for Windows has recently ceased. Let me just say that the browser is really very high quality and beautiful, like any other product from Apple. If you want, you can download Safari and use it, you are unlikely to be disappointed.

Which browser is better?

Each Internet user must choose a browser for himself. Neither I nor any other person can completely objectively answer the question of which browser is better. This is most likely a matter of taste. For example, I don’t really like working on Opera, but this does not mean that this browser is worse than others. Many of my friends use it.

As you know, My choice on this moment— Mozilla Firefox. Since I use it more often than others, I have provided more specific examples of problems and errors with of this browser, but this does not mean that others do not have them. Absolutely every browser glitches at times, just like any other program. Some, of course, have fewer glitches, some have more, but everyone has them. Any browser can freeze and crash, there’s no escape from it.

For beginners, I would recommend browsers such as Google Chrome and Yandex Browser. I'll explain why. They are the easiest to learn, everything is as simple as possible, there is nothing superfluous, complete minimalism. You won't need to scour the jungle of menus to find this or that function, everything is on the surface. But despite their apparent simplicity, both of these browsers are very powerful and support all modern standards. The initial functionality in them without installing any additional extensions is also quite large. For example, only these two browsers are initially able to translate sites from foreign languages. For others, this function becomes available only after installing additional plugins.

Perhaps, objectively, or almost objectively, I can only speak about Internet Explorer. It is this browser that displays websites incorrectly more often than others, and I have also heard that its security system is lame. Even though IE is oldest browser from this list, lately he has only had to catch up with his young competitors, and he is not doing this in the best way.

When choosing a browser, you can also look at popularity ratings, but I don’t advise you to rely on them. Each person must choose for himself what he likes. For example, there are still a lot of users in the world who prefer IE, but, in my opinion, this is only because it is installed on the computer along with Windows. Most people do not like to change anything and look for the best, but use what they already have. I also used Internet Explorer before, but that was a long time ago. At that time I was not such an active Internet user as I am now, I didn’t know all the intricacies, I thought that sites should be displayed exactly as in Explorer, I just didn’t know any better. If something on any site was moving out of place or was too large or, conversely, small, I thought that the error lay in the site itself, but, as it turned out, I was wrong. In the original version of this article, I gave a rating of the popularity of browsers in Russia and in the world as a whole, but then I realized that this was not necessary, since it is constantly changing and it can be done right choice definitely won't help.

When choosing a browser you need to pay attention to several highlights:

Convenience - each user must decide on this point for himself. To do this, download a browser, work on it for several hours, and if you feel any inconvenience or don’t like something, download and test the next one. And so on until you understand which browser is most convenient for you. In principle, the list is small, so testing will not take long.
Functionality— by and large, all of the above browsers have sufficient functionality for almost any Internet user. If one or another function is missing, you can always download and install an add-on or plugin.
Speed - I personally haven’t checked the speed of a particular browser using any services, much less stopwatches. I can say that the latest versions of each of them work quite quickly. Somewhere I saw the results of a study, according to which Chrome loads web pages the fastest, and displays the visible part of the page on the Firefox screen. How true this is, I don’t know. I don’t think that Yandex Browser or Opera are far behind them in this indicator.
Correct display of sites— it would seem, why don’t developers update their browsers and make them display sites correctly. Imagine how cool it would be if every website looked exactly the same in all browsers, how many fewer problems would there be for layout designers (specialists who “pull” the design onto the site), but no, developers cannot yet bring their browsers to this level perfection, but it's a pity. I would like to note right away that browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Yandex Browser display sites as correctly as possible. Opera also supports almost all modern standards, but there are still times when it does not display a particular style correctly. Recently, it was because of her that I had to redo the font sizes on one of my sites, since she increased them very much. Also go, for example, to Yandex Market and see how it is displayed in Opera and in any other browser listed above, I’m sure you will see the differences. I don’t really want to talk about Internet Explorer, but I will still say: this is one of the most backward browsers in terms of correctly displaying sites. It doesn't play well with shadows and other effects. Very often, a separate style file is written specifically for IE so that it at least somehow copes with its task.
Security - to be honest, any in special ways I have not checked this item. I know that Chrome and Firefox seem to be fine with this, you can also bet big on Yandex Browser thanks to cooperation with Kaspersky Lab, I can’t say anything specific about Opera, I heard about IE that the security system is so-so. In any case, install antivirus software on your computers, and everything will be fine.

When it comes to choosing a browser, never completely trust anyone’s opinion. What someone else seems comfortable and ideal, you may not like at all, and vice versa. The most important thing in a browser for ordinary Internet users, in my opinion, is convenience. If you are satisfied with the work of the browser, its interface is pleasant and it is simply convenient to use, then you are unlikely to pay Special attention for other moments. But in any case, try to evaluate the browser on the other points listed above and then make your final choice. Moreover, now, I hope you understand what a browser is, why it is needed and how to use it correctly. Personally, I would advise you to take a closer look at Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, Yandex Browser also performed well, but, I repeat once again, this is just my subjective opinion.

If you have any questions, problems with the choice or operation of a particular browser, you are welcome to comment.

The first word any newbie hears when entering the Internet is browser. What is a browser? What are they, how to choose the best? There are a lot of questions, but the answers to them are often not available online or they have to be collected piecemeal. I’m going to write a full article on this topic so that any beginner, after reading it, will understand everything from A to Z. For example, you will need to explain the basics of surfing the Internet to your grandmother, who is as far from a computer as the Earth is from Jupiter. It's not a problem! Just open my article to her and let her be enlightened! ;)

So, here is a small plan for our lesson today - lectures - notes, as you like.

We will move according to this plan so as not to miss anything. After this lesson, you should not have any blank spots in this topic. To begin with, I will give a couple of definitions and descriptions of the term “Browser”, since everyone strives to give it their own interpretation, but it can often be erroneous or incomplete. If you give several explanations at once, you can get a complete picture. Then I'll tell you a short history development of browsers in order to understand where it all began and where it is going. Only knowing history, at least briefly, can one understand the current state of affairs. This rule works everywhere: in the political sphere, in the computer sphere, in the legal sphere, and in any other sphere. Below we will list ALL modern browsers that have some weight in the market. After all, why do you need to know about some exotic program used by a bunch of geeks? I think there is no need. Okay, we're starting.

What is a browser

1) Browser, Web browser, is a special program designed for viewing websites. This happens using http requests to the server and receiving data from it, which is processed according to special approved standards and thus a web page is generated.
2) In simpler language Browser- this is the program that you have open at the moment and with the help of which you have the opportunity to now read my article. That is, the browser is a conductor between worldwide network Internet and user. It allows you to access the entire wealth of information available on the Internet.

Now it is clear. We turn on the computer, connect to the Internet, but it is impossible to obtain any data from it without a special program. There must be software that can request information, receive it, process it and display it on the user’s screen. This is exactly what the browser does.

A Brief History of Browsers

The very first browser with a graphical interface is Mosaic from NCSA. But despite being a pioneer in the field of browsers, Mosaic's development was discontinued in 1997 due to loss of market. Now I will explain how it all happened. The fact is that some workers from NCSA migrated to Netscape and began developing a new, more advanced browser - Netscape Navigator. It should have better standards support and be much easier to use. They succeeded and their product was a success.

The well-known company Microsoft drew attention to this. It’s logical, because such a huge piece of the pie practically floated out of their hands. But the situation quickly changed, and in a completely opposite direction, when Microsoft, based on the open source code of the first graphical browser Mosaic, quickly assembled its browser - Interner Explorer. They included it in a mandatory update for their Windows 95 operating system and it was done. Now each user was practically deprived of the right to choose, including due to his illiteracy in this matter. That's the whole secret of IE's stunning success - monopoly. The brainchild of Moycrosoft quickly captured the niche and had about 95% of the market. In this regard, Netscape was forced to close its project. But here they took a rather correct step, namely, they published the code under the free MPL license (which stands for Mozilla public License). This was a great contribution to the fight against monopoly.

It was on the basis of this code that the completely new project Mozilla Firefox, which was forced to develop faster than IE in order to win the market. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s project was abandoned and practically not improved. They didn’t need it, because users had practically no choice, or rather, the vast majority did not know about alternatives in the form of Mozilla. In the same 1995, another browser appeared - Opera, which, due to its free nature (until 2005, was distributed shareware) was gaining popularity in the CIS countries. IE continued its development only to the 7th version.
Thus, we smoothly approached the next point.

What modern browsers are there?

Google Chrome . This is a browser that is developed by the giant Google based on their own free Chromium browser. It uses the WebKit engine to display the resulting web pages. The first publicly available beta version of Chrome for the Microsoft Windows operating system was released on September 2, 2008. A little later, on December 11, 2008, it was released stable version. According to StatCounter data, the browser is currently in first place in popularity in the world, and its market share in May 2012 was 32.43%. As for the RuNet, LiveInternet reports that in May 2012 Chrome ranks first - its share is about 20.6%. As of January 2014 - 32%.

Distributed free of charge under a public license. Included in the set Mozilla programs Application Suite operated by Mozilla Corporation. According to Statcounter, Firefox is the third most popular software in the world, but second among free software, so in May 2012 its market share was 25.55%. It is also worth noting that this browser is particularly successful, for example, in Germany and Poland. There it occupies 55% and 47% of the market, respectively. As for Russia, Firefox ranks third in popularity with a share of 23.73% of users by July 2012. And in January 2014 it was already only 14%.

Internet Explorer. A series of browsers developed by Microsoft since 1995. It is included with the operating systems Windows family. IE, according to the LiveInternet service, in Russia by March 2012 already ranks third with 15.6% of users. As mentioned above, first place goes to Google browser Chrome. It is worth taking into account that Internet Explorer is installed in almost all large and medium-sized companies as the only browser for the purposes of organizational security policies. In fact, alternative reviewers are no worse in this regard, it’s just that the stereotype “since IE is developed by Microsoft, it means it’s a serious product” has become firmly entrenched in the minds of management, who don’t even want to hear that in reality the situation is completely different. Often, work computers have versions 5 and 6 of IE installed, which have unpatched vulnerabilities that are three or four years old.

Opera. Web browser and software package for working on the Internet. Published by Opera Software. It was developed in 1994 by a group of enthusiasts from the small Norwegian company Telenor. Since 1995, it has been a product of Opera Software, which was founded by the authors of the first version. It is known that the total market share of Opera and Opera Mobile in April 2012 was about 2.3%. In Russia, the percentage of browser users is much higher than in the rest of the world. So, as of March 2012 Opera together with mobile version of Opera Mini took first place in Russia with 32.1% of users. But by 2013 everything had changed. The quality of the mobile version of the browser has dropped, and with the appearance of the desktop version of Opera 18, where bookmarks turned into something very inconvenient, Opera began to sharply lose its fans. As of January 2014 - 9%.

Apple Safari. Browser that was developed Apple Corporation. Included in the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems, of course. It is also distributed absolutely free of charge for Windows operating systems. It ranks 4th in terms of the number of users (share as of November 2011 - 6.66%). In the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet, its share is 8% as of January 2014.

General graph of browser popularity on the world Internet:

As you can see, the graph confirms everything I wrote. IE had a virtual monopoly in this area from the very beginning. But gradually its share decreased due to the low quality of work. It kept freezing, didn't support tabs for a very long time (every page opened in a new window, but freezing 1 window caused them all to crash). Since its inception, FireFox has been beloved by active users, who see this browser as the main competitor to Internet Explorer. But with the advent of Chrome on the market, everything began to change dramatically and at the moment Google’s browser completely dominates this market.
That's all, other browsers, in my purely personal opinion, are not worthy of attention. I'm not the ultimate truth, I'm just expressing my thoughts.

Bottom line. Today I told you about all the popular browsers, now you know what a browser is, as well as their history. I hope this article was useful to you!

Browser (web-browser, graphical browser) is a program with which an Internet user can visit and watch websites on computers and gadgets. Essentially, he is a stylistic translator CSS markup, Java scripts and HTML language, processes http requests from users, receives data from the server and gives them the requested pages. Simply put, a browser is the program through which you downloaded our site and are reading this article.

Today, there are several popular versions of browsers, which differ to one degree or another, which is why inexperienced webmasters encounter difficulties when laying out web resources. However, qualified webmasters know how to solve such problems, so almost every advanced site looks great on any browser.

But before we talk about the functions and versions of modern web browsers, let us briefly recall the history of their appearance.

The first browser to receive a graphical interface for displaying not only texts, tables and lists, but also pictures, was Mosaic, created in 1993 by NCSA for Windows. In principle, it can be considered a “pioneer” among all modern browsers. At that time Mosaic was extremely popular, but 4 years after its creation, due to the loss of the market, the project was closed.

Leading NSCA employees went to work for Netscape, which began developing a new, more functional and modern graphical browser called Netscape Navigator. They wanted their browser to be simpler, easier to use, and more compliant with standards. And they managed to do it. It is worth noting that the basis for creating the masterpiece Netscape at that time was the Mosaic code.

Such success could not go unnoticed, and soon the then well-known company Microsoft came to the rescue. They realized that a big fish was swimming away from them. However, Microsoft geniuses soon remade source first browser, creating his own - Internet Explorer.

It is IE, being integrated with Windows OS and accessible to users completely free, relegated the market leaders to the background. It has become an integral part of updating Windows OS, and people have lost their choice. But no one was indignant, because few people knew about alternative options.

Thanks to its monopoly, Internet Explorer quickly captured 95% of the market and forced Netscape to go out of business, but only for a short time. Soon a code called Mozilla public License appeared in the public domain, on the basis of which an absolutely new browser Mozilla Firefox, which has become one of the leaders on the market today. Due to the lack of competition, the Microsoft project did not develop in any way, since at first users did not know about better alternatives, which became Mozilla Firefox.

The same Opera appeared back in 95 of the last century, but it was popular only in the CIS countries. And all because in free access it appeared on the foreign market already in 2005.

What functions does the browser perform?

In order for a computer or any other device connected to the Internet to be able to download data from it, you need a device designed for this purpose. software, capable of requesting information, processing it and loading it onto the screen. For this purpose, a browser was created that opens web pages consisting of code. It receives the code from the server where the site is stored and processes it to give you a readable and watchable picture on the monitor.

To view the encoding of a site, you need to right-click on its page and select “View Code.” Normal operation and loading pages of web resources largely depends on the correct source code.

Another one convenient function browsers – storing user passwords for various sites, so that when you visit and log into your account again, you don’t have to re-enter your login and password. If you visited a website before and forgot its name, the saved history of visiting Internet resources will help you find the necessary source. But the story can be very long and finding the site among the abundance of visited pages will be quite difficult.

To avoid such situations, browsers have the ability to create bookmarks that are displayed under the address bar. With their help, you can store the sites you need and quickly access them with one click.

In addition to loading and opening websites, browsers are designed to download files of various formats: movies, audio recordings, games, text documents etc. All modern browsers have the ability to download add-ons:

Extensions. These are add-ons that, for example, block advertising banners on websites, checking links for viruses, etc.
Informers. The same extensions, only they notify the user: about the weather, about new messages in the mail, etc.
Themes. Change visual design background pictures and other browser elements.

Browsers do not affect each other’s functioning in any way, so they can be installed all at once on one device. However, the user must select a default application, which will be the main one in the OS, and when clicking on links, they will open through it.

7 popular browsers

The oldest modern browser, included in the Windows OS. In the last century, it accounted for almost the entire market share. But the prolonged and unconditional leadership led to the regression of the web browser, which its competitors quickly took advantage of. IE from version 6 to 8 inclusive is a horror for webmasters. They do not meet any modern requirements for creating websites. The latest 11th version is available exclusively for Windows 7 and 8. Only Internet Explorer 9 deserves attention - a more or less stable, fast and well-protected version. Although it cannot be compared with other advanced analogues.

One of the newest popular browsers. In 2015, with the release of Windows 10, Microsoft introduced its new and modern Edge browser. Unlike IE, it is constantly updated and has become the standard browser for Windows 10, replacing the completely outdated Internet Explorer.

The current leader, developed by the most powerful company in the world - Google search engine. The WebKit engine is used to display pages of Internet resources. Chrome has reached the top at an unimaginable pace, since it appeared only in 2008 - much later than its competitors. Now it occupies about 50% of the total market. The browser pleases users with its speed, reliable protection, simple and stylish design.

It ranks third in popularity. However, this is the first browser that managed to break the monopoly of Microsoft Corporation in the 20th century. Unlike its counterparts, Mozilla is focused on using add-ons. One of the disadvantages is that the browser becomes heavy when installing plugins and takes much longer to load pages.

5. Opera

One of the most popular browsers on the RuNet, but noticeably lagging behind on the global market. Opera pleases with an abundance of interesting and unique chips, such as built-in messengers and mail client, VPN, and many other features not inherent to competitors, who had to come up with special add-ons. Web browser developers offer users cool mobile versions that occupy leading positions in their field.

6. Yandex.Browser

Development from Yandex, appeared in 2012. The first versions of the application were disappointing with a number of shortcomings. However, they have been corrected in new versions, and now the modern multifunctional web browser is more than a worthy competitor to Chrome. Its main difference: speed of operation (turbo mode), reading articles without loading graphics, built-in protected technology protect.

From the name you can guess that this is the brainchild of Apple. It is included in iOS and Mac OS. At the moment, this browser cannot be downloaded for Windows - Apple has removed this option from its website.

Conclusion

We have listed the most popular modern browsers. But there are other small browsers on the market:

Chromium;
Nichrome;
Comodo Dragon;
[email protected];
CoolNovo (Chrome Plus);
SRWare Iron.

Previously, Internet Explorer rested on its laurels, because Microsoft literally forced Windows OS users to use its browser, while there were worthy analogues. However, the bright mind and interesting innovations of talented developers from various companies, which make it easier for users to use the Internet, prevailed, and today the monopolist’s share in the world market is sharply declining. Today, the most successful is Google Chrome, but competition breeds progress, and no one knows who will be able to offer us a cooler browser tomorrow.

You might be interested in this:

There are no similar articles.

I think that today, the overwhelming majority of personal computers are connected to the global Internet, and the number of users world wide web grows inexorably every year. According to some agencies, now in Russia, the number of global network users exceeds 60% of the country's total population. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that many users spend all their time at the computer on the Internet.

To get into the global network, in addition to the actual physical connection To access it, you need a special program (programs) that will allow you to comfortably view your favorite websites and the web pages they contain. Such programs are called browsers (sometimes they are also called browsers), from the English word “browse”, which can be translated as “view”.

Despite the fact that almost all modern browsers are free, this is quite complex programs, endowed with a large number of functions, and many specialists are involved in the development of the most popular solutions. Their main task is to make surfing the Internet not only comfortable, but also safe.

A LITTLE HISTORY

At the moment, there are quite a large number of different browsers from different developers, but from their total mass, five most popular products can be distinguished - Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari.

In the late 90s, the main browser for most people was Netscape Navigator. But politics Microsoft, radically changed the balance of power in this area for many years. It was at this time that the decision was made to ship Internet Explorer with Windows system, which literally squeezed out all competitors from the browser market.

The Internet at that time was not so developed, and the web pages themselves looked quite simple. Therefore, there was no need for ordinary users to think about the convenience of surfing, network speed and supported standards, and the built-in solution was enough to view text pages behind the scenes.

Having captured the lion's share of the browser market, the software giant did not calm down and continued to improve IE (Internet Explorer). In 2001, along with Windows XP, its 6th version was released, which for 5.5 years was the main Internet tool for the vast majority of users, and Microsoft itself rested on its laurels, not thinking about releasing new versions of its browser.

It was this long stagnation that gave competitors the opportunity to present alternative solutions to users, instead of the rather boring Internet Explorer. The Norwegian company Opera, having developed new engine Presto, introduced Opera browser 7.0, which many people liked and began to rapidly gain popularity. But the biggest “surprise” for Microsoft was the revival of the seemingly destroyed Netscape. Its engine was the basis for the Mozilla Suite product, from which Firefox emerged in 2004, which subsequently won a quarter of the browser market from IE.

The Explorer's troubles didn't end there. In 2003 year Apple replaced the Microsoft product on its computers with its own creation called Safari. And not so long ago, in 2008, the search giant Google released its version of the browser - Google Chrome.

Having missed such activity in the market, Microsoft began to hastily release new versions of Internet Explorer; its 7th version was released with Windows Vista, and the 8th with Windows 7. But it was too late, these versions turned out to be unable to compete with their rivals, because their functionality only copied what other developers had long used in their products. Despite the fact that the latest 9th version of IE can really be called modern solution, the monopoly in this field was irretrievably lost.

On modern market browsers among the above-mentioned products, a serious struggle has unfolded for the sympathy of users, who sometimes, due to aggressive advertising, are not so easy to make the right choice in favor of one solution or another. As you probably already guessed, in this material, we will get acquainted with the main features of the Big Five browsers, and also talk about their advantages and disadvantages.

MAIN CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING BROWSERS

What should you pay attention to first when choosing a browser?

Web standards support

Behind general principles work of the global Internet network is in charge of the world organization The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It is she who develops and approves all existing web standards, which all web pages posted on the Internet must comply with. Therefore, in order to display sites and web pages correctly, the browser must support approved web standards, and the more it knows about them, the better.

To check the compatibility of browsers with certain standards, it is most often used test program ACID 3, in which a score of 100 points indicates full compatibility with all existing web standards.

User interface

Having a well-thought-out and understandable user interface is the key to the success and popularity of any browser. After all, providing users with convenient surfing on the Internet is the main purpose of these products. Developers and designers have to seriously rack their brains over how to most correctly place all kinds of controls for browser functions. A heavily cluttered interface can be just as inconvenient as an overly cluttered one, so the goal for manufacturers is to find the optimal balance of how elements are laid out in the browser window. At the same time, one should not forget that user interface should be not only comfortable, but also visually attractive.

Functionality

Modern browsers have become like a small operating system - through them we view pages with a complex interactive interface, watch movies and listen to music, use them as development tools, download files from the network, use them as FTP clients and much more. Therefore, most users began to regard the browser no longer just as a banal “page viewer”, but as a serious working tool that should have extensive capabilities and be convenient in everyday work.

Safety

Modern browsers pay close attention to security issues, but, nevertheless, completely secure browsers do not exist. Unfortunately, attackers are constantly finding new vulnerabilities in browsers that allow them to infect users’ computers or gain access to their personal data. Developers can only patch up the detected holes by regularly releasing updates, and the faster this happens, the higher the security of their product.

INTERNETEXPLORER

Let's start from the very popular browser, which has remained so for many years. However, recently this product has lost more than half of its fans, and the share of its use has dropped to 40% worldwide.

The current version of the browser from Microsoft is Internet Explorer 9. Over the two years of its development, the manufacturer has done serious work on bugs, which resulted in support for almost all modern standards, including the newfangled HTML 5 and CSS 3. In a specialized test, ACID 3, 9- The latest version of Explorer scored 95 points out of 100 possible. By the way, IE 8 had 20 points in the same test.

To process multimedia content of web pages, Internet Explorer actively uses the hardware capabilities of the central and GPUs computer, which significantly increases its performance.

The interface of the latest version of this browser has undergone a radical overhaul. Microsoft itself calls it “compact”, because it is based on just one panel where all necessary elements controls:

on the left - back/forward buttons and address bar, combined with a search field, including update and cancel buttons;
in the center there is a panel for tabs of the pages being viewed, and to the right of them is a button for opening a new tab;
on the right are buttons for going to the home page, favorites and browser settings.

Ascetic panelInternet Explorer 9

Despite such an ascetic design, the new IE turned out to be quite stylish with a memorable design.

The browser's address bar meets all modern requirements, automatically substituting options from the browsing history or from the list of previously visited sites when entering the address itself.

Due to the fact that the entire user interface was placed on one line, there is not much space left for tabs, which seriously complicates navigation when there are a large number of them. True, it is possible to move the tab bar to a separate line. It is also possible to move any tab into its own window by dragging it anywhere on the desktop.

Another interesting point is the ability to pin tabs in the Windows7 taskbar, which will subsequently allow you to launch your favorite pages as regular applications.

At the bottom of the browser screen there is a pop-up prompt bar that appears when certain user actions occur. At first, it’s easy to miss it and think for a long time about why the browser doesn’t take any action on your commands.

The latest version of the browser received new manager file downloads and a system for tracking the performance of installed plugins.

Despite improved protection against malicious sites, it is in Microsoft's brainchild that the most vulnerabilities are found, and their correction, unfortunately, does not occur quickly enough.

Another disadvantage of IE is the very limited ability to expand its functionality using plugins, since the code of this browser is not available to third-party developers.

MOZILLAFIREFOX

Quite a long time Mozilla browser Firefox was the second most popular browser among the top five browsers. As of today, the current version has an index of 9. However, it is worth considering that the last five releases are separated by only 7.5 months.

In truth, Firefox 4.0 was revolutionary among them, receiving new design and a new kernel. However, subsequent versions contain only improvements that improve the performance, fault tolerance and security of the browser.

This browser does not have support for all kinds of modern web standards; in the aforementioned ACID 3 test it scores 100 points out of 100 possible.

Thanks to the modern engine, the overall speed of the new Firefox versions significantly accelerated, including page loading speed and application launch itself. Wherein hardware acceleration graphics allows you to easily view complex interactive content on multimedia sites.

After some criticism from users, which the developers took into account, starting with version 4, Firefox received a new modern interface. In the upper left corner there is a menu button with various settings, and the panel for page tabs has moved to the top. Below it is a navigation panel, which includes:

left, back/forward buttons;
in the middle, an address bar with buttons for adding to favorites the pages you are viewing and updating them;
To the right is the search window and the home button.

Even lower is the bookmarks bar, in which you can keep links to the most visited pages.

The browser is equipped with a smart address bar, which, when you start entering an address, displays a window with hints, where all matches are marked in highlighted font. You can also use it to go to any open tab.

For the most frequently visited sites in Firefox, there is a very useful feature of pinning tabs, which assigns them a permanent place of residence on the left side of the tab bar. After opening the browser again, this type of tab will always be in its place.

And yet the main advantage of Mozilla Firefox can be called its rich functionality. The code of this product is open, so the browser has a huge number of various add-ons that make it possible to make it a real powerful working tool that allows you to solve any problems. Moreover, with the help of special wallpapers and themes, interface customization plugins, tabs and bookmarks, you can transform the appearance of the browser to suit your every whim. All these joys are on a special site dedicated to additions for this reviewer.

Despite the fact that Firefox is the second browser in terms of the number of vulnerabilities found, developers fix them quickly enough, which significantly increases the security of user data.

GOOGLECHROME

Despite its youth, today Chrome has risen to second place in popularity in the world, overtaking Mozilla Firefox. In principle, this is not surprising, since this browser is the brainchild of the search giant Google, which has a powerful technical base and great financial opportunities.

At the moment, the current version is Google Chrome 17. Such a high product index is explained by the choice of a slightly different policy for assigning it - the browser receives it immediately after the developers make any significant changes.

There is no need to worry about support for web standards in the case of this Internet browser; in the ACID 3 test, Chrome shows a 100 percent result.

Speed complaints Google work No Chrome. Moreover, according to many experts, this is generally the fastest browser in the world. Thanks to modern technology WebKit visualization, the browser opens pages literally instantly. It also quickly launches complex web applications and 3D graphics, the processing of which is carried out at the hardware level.

As for the user interface design of this browser, it can be called strict and concise. It was Chrome that set the newfangled trend of placing tabs at the very top of the window. Under the tab bar there is a toolbar, called the omnibar by developers, which contains:

On the left are forward/backward, update/stop buttons;
In the center is an omnibox - a smart address bar combined with a search and a button to add a page to bookmarks. In this case, search results or web page addresses begin to be displayed as you type;
On the right is a button for setting up and managing the browser.

Even lower, you can enable the display of the bookmarks bar.

Just like in Firefox, in Google Chrome it is possible to pin tabs with the most frequently visited pages, after which they move to left side screen, taking on a more compact size.

Just like in Internet Explorer, there is a pop-up helper line that appears at the bottom of the screen when certain user actions occur, for example, when downloading files from the network.

Chrome comes with a fairly large number of built-in useful functions, such as an automatic web page translator or displaying thumbnail images of frequently visited sites and launched applications in a special tab called the Quick Access page. But if you find the browser’s starting functionality not enough or want to transform its appearance, then you have access to many applications, extensions and additional themes that can be downloaded from the Chrome online store.

Another undoubted advantage of the product Google is the attitude of developers towards its security system. Built-in protection against phishing and malware is a good help in the fight against attackers trying to exploit browser vulnerabilities for their own purposes. Also the system automatic update, ensures timely installation of patches and various fixes that increase the overall reliability of the security system.

Despite the fact that the Norwegian browser ranks fourth in the world rankings, far behind the top three, it is a very popular browser in Russia. For several years, Opera has been a favorite among domestic users, and I must say, deservedly so.

The current browser version is 11.6. In the ACID 3 test, Opera shows a 100% result, so this browser has no problems supporting all modern web standards.

The Opera core is constantly being improved by developers, which is the key to fast and stable operation browser on the Internet. The speed of opening web pages does not cause any complaints, and for many specialists it is considered the standard. For displaying complex animations in Opera, a specialized high-speed graphics library called Vega, which allows for fast and smooth image processing.

Opera's user interface is somewhat similar to Mozilla Firefox, although not in terms of design, but in terms of layout functional elements. In the upper left corner there is a button for the main menu, which includes all kinds of browser settings. Web page tabs are traditionally placed at the top. On the right, on the tab bar, there is a button reflecting the history of closed tabs. The toolbar below has the following elements:

On the left are buttons back/forward, page refresh, login;
In the center, traditionally, is a smart address bar with buttons for the list of RSS feeds and favorites;
On the right is the search query field.

By default, Opera displays a sidebar, which is located vertically on the left and contains buttons: Bookmarks, Widgets, Unite, Notes, Downloads, History and sidebar settings. It is also possible to enable the bookmarks bar.

The Opera browser has one interesting feature - the ability to group tabs. To do this, simply drag one tab to another, and a triangle-shaped group open/close icon appears next to them. When you hover your mouse over the header of a group of tabs, the browser will show thumbnails of all the grouped web pages.

If we talk about the initial functionality of the Norwegian browser, i.e. about the capabilities that the browser has immediately after installation, perhaps Opera has the richest. The developers have endowed it with such a variety of options that such a gentleman’s set is quite capable of satisfying almost all the basic needs of users. At your service is a download manager, BitTorrent support, spell checking, and more. A nice bonus Users may benefit from the existence of an express panel - special page with thumbnails of the most frequently visited sites displayed.

At the same time, Norwegian developers went even further and added the ability to further expand the functionality of their product using special mini-applications that are hosted on the Opera website.

Opera's security system is at its most high level. When visiting sites, the browser checks their data in real time and displays a message to users in case of danger. It is possible to use private tabs, for example, when working in online banking.

The last browser in our review will be the browser from Apple. It is worth noting that this product is more focused on the market of computers manufactured by the company itself and using the Mac OS operating system. Despite this, its share of the global market is about 5%.

The current version of this browser has an index of 5. Support for web standards is organized at the highest level and Safari passes the ACID 3 test one hundred percent.

Perhaps on native systems, the performance of Apple's browser is the highest, but in Windows OS in various tests, average results are shown relative to competitors, which, on the other hand, is not bad at all. The browser supports hardware graphics acceleration, which speeds up the rendering of interactive web pages, and has an optimized caching algorithm that allows you to load previously visited pages at very high speeds. It is noteworthy that Apple uses the same engine (WebKit) in its browser as Google uses in Chrome.

The user interface in this browser is somewhat different from the previous four, which, in general, is not surprising. The look of the classic control panel may seem a little old-fashioned to some users, as it has a header and page tabs are located under all panels. At the top, in the browser header, the name of the page you are viewing is reflected. Below is a toolbar containing mostly familiar elements:

On the left are the back/forward buttons.
In the central part there is a smart address bar, which starts with the “+” button, which performs the functions of adding a page to reading lists, dedicated page, displaying thumbnails of the most visited resources and a bookmarks bar. On the right side there are buttons for viewing RSS feeds (appears if it is on the site), activating the Reader mode (appears if possible) and refreshing the page.
On the right there is a search bar, as well as menu buttons current page and browser settings.

Further, below, there is a bookmarks bar and only below it is a tab bar, which, when viewing a single page, is not visible at all. In order to add the first tab, you need to access the corresponding menu item on the current page, which is not obvious to many users. True, after the tab bar appears on the screen, they are added using the “+” button located on the right side.

One of the interesting Safari features, we can call it Reader mode, which allows you to highlight the material of a separate article in a separate pop-up window that has its own settings for font size and other text formatting elements. All other elements of the site are darkened in this mode, allowing the user to focus only on reading specific material.

The page of frequently visited sites, called TopSites, looks very original in Safari. The developers have endowed it with a three-dimensional design, which looks quite stylish and beautiful, just like all Apple products.

The general functionality of Apple's browser can be significantly enriched with the help of extensions located on the developer's website. Moreover, if until recently, most of them were available only Mac users OS, plugins for Safari are now available on the Windows platform.

It is quite difficult to speak unequivocally about the security of this browser. As already noted, the majority of users of this browser are owners of devices with the Mac OS operating system, which is not as wildly popular among attackers as Windows, which means that system hacks themselves via Safari are recorded much less frequently. And the developers themselves are reluctant to disclose information about the security problems of their product, citing the goals of protecting user data. The company believes that by not disclosing or confirming data about certain vulnerabilities in its browser, it will retain confidential information that could be used by attackers to bypass the security system.

CONCLUSIONS

Developers of modern browser solutions spend a lot of effort and money to please users. After all, it is necessary to take care of many factors that contribute to the successful promotion of your own product on the market. Among them:

support for web standards for correct and complete display of web pages;
convenient and attractive user interface;
powerful engine, capable of quickly processing pages containing a complex graphical interface, 3D images, audio and video content;
ensuring the security of user data.

Just a few years ago, the position of the Internet Explorer browser seemed unshakable, and only a handful of enthusiasts resorted to using alternative solutions. Today, the situation has changed dramatically. Microsoft's browser has lost all its advantage, and its popularity continues to rapidly fade. True, we can say that the 9th version of Internet Explorer turned out to be decent, it is faster and more convenient than previous versions, and also contains a number of important improvements. True, it cannot offer anything revolutionary in comparison with competing solutions, which is unlikely to cause a massive influx of users who currently use other browsers. Although, this version is quite capable of stopping migration to competitors’ products.

Google Chrome, despite its youth, has been rapidly gaining popularity recently. Already, many rating agencies place it in second place in popularity, which for many years belonged to the Firefox browser. The developers invest a lot of money and effort into their brainchild, which pays off handsomely. According to many analysts, Chrom has the fastest engine in its arsenal and better system security. At the same time, the browser acted as a trendsetter in placing page tabs on top, as well as combining address and search bars.

Despite the fact that Mozilla Firefox has somewhat lost its position in the world rankings to its competitor from Google, this browser is extremely popular among users, and in Russia it is even the leader in use in desktop computers. The most important advantage of Firefox over its competitors is the existence of a huge number of free add-ons, with the help of which it is possible to radically change the functionality of the browser, its interface and appearance. True, sometimes, for such flexible expandability, you have to pay with increased requirements for RAM, more slow work user interface and browser crashes. IN latest versions of this browser, the developers are trying in every possible way to improve the stability of its operation, not only by eliminating memory leaks, but also by improving the very mechanism of its use.

The Norwegian Opera browser has been one of the most popular solutions among Russian users for many years. Initially, this browser has very rich functionality and a set of useful services, which makes it an attractive solution for those people who want to get everything they need right out of the box without having to install add-ons. Without any particular drawbacks, the decline in Opera's popularity can only be explained by the activity of competitors who are constantly improving their products, offering equally attractive solutions in this area.

The Safari browser, being developed by Apple and initially intended for use in its own operating systems Mac systems OS, it is quite difficult to fight for a place in the sun in the niche of Windows systems. Many experts agree that the performance of this browser on the Windows platform is much more modest than when used in the “native” OS. However, it has a fast engine that can cope with tasks of any complexity and its own unique user interface, which has its fans.

For all those who want to see browsers in action, our portal carries out regular large-scale testing of the latest and most popular versions of Internet browsers, the latest of which you can familiarize yourself with.

Despite the fact that the browser is a product that many people work on to create, and a lot of money is invested in its development, it remains free, which allows users, if they have the desire and time, to independently get acquainted with all the main solutions in this area.

What is an external browser? What is a Browser - basics

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Similar documents

Basic browser functions

Types of browsers

Which browser is better?

What is a browser

A Brief History of Browsers

What modern browsers are there?

What functions does the browser perform?

7 popular browsers

5. Opera

6. Yandex.Browser

Conclusion

Popular articles

Latest articles

Sections

Pages

Special projects

Contacts