Web browsers

A web browser (English browser – one who looks through) is a program that loads web pages from the WWW and shows them on the screen. The first browser was created in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee (it was called WorldWideWeb). Browsers widely used today are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari and Opera; the Internet Explorer mentioned in the textbook is outdated and was retired in 2022, but browsers have a similar layout. A browser’s jobs: to find and open a page by its address, to show it and, if needed, to save or print it. The main parts of the window: the tab strip (several pages in one window), the address bar (the site address is typed here and Enter pressed; in most browsers a search query can be typed here too), toolbar buttons and the area where the page is shown. Buttons: “Back” and “Forward” move along the pages already opened, “Refresh” loads the page again, “Stop” stops loading (if a page opens too slowly), “Home” returns to the start page. A page you often need can be added to favourites (bookmarks); the list of opened pages is kept in “History”. When saving a file or downloading an app, use only trusted sources and do not open unknown files without an adult.