web browser

A web browser is the Software program you use to access theWorld Wide Web, the graphical portion of the Internet. The first browser, called NCSA Mosaic, was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in the early 1990s. The easy-to-use point-and-click interface helped popularize the Web, although few could then imagine the explosive growth that would soon occur.

The Top Three

Although many different browsers are available, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox,Google's Chrome and Netscape Navigator (a distant third) are the most popular. (Many Mac users prefer the Safari browser.) At one time, Netscape (now owned by AOL) and Microsoft put so much money into their browsers that competitors found it hard to keep up. The battle between the two companies to dominate the market led to continual improvements to the software. Version 5.0 and later releases of either browser are excellent choices. (By the way, both are based on NCSA Mosaic.)

Firefox, a more recent entry, was released in November 2004; version 2.0, with enchanced security and other new features was released in October 2006 and has been updated periodically.