Introduction to Web Browsers
Introduction (top)
To view pages on the World Wide Web, you
must have a type of software, called a browser, loaded on your computer. Consider
browsers in the same way you do word processors and other software applications
you already know. Word processors allow you to create pages that can be printed,
drawing programs allow you to draw, and browsers allow you to "browse"
and view web pages.
Web browsers allow us to view web pages located on remote web servers. When
you click a link or try to find a certain page, the browser finds the web page
on a computer, translates the HTML coded information for you, and displays the
web page on your screen. As web pages load, or are displayed on your screen,
browsers have graphical indicators to let you know something is happening. Netscape,
for example, uses their logo in the upper right hand corner of the window to
show action, as in the picture below. Note the "meteor shower" effect
around the "N." Internet Explorer uses a spinning globe/Microsoft
icon to let the user know the page is still loading.
Some browsers also incorporate email and other Internet services. Browsers can
also interpret web pages differently—your home page might not look the same
on all browsers depending on the version of HTML it supports and other considerations.
Some browsers do not support conventions such as tables or frames in the same
way, sounds and videos which work in one browser may not work in another, and
the spacing automatically applied around objects such as graphics and text is
not always the same. This will not affect you as a web user, but as you move
into web design you'll need to be familiar with as many different browsers as
possible to better understand how your pages will look in various programs.
The Major Browsers(top)
Although other web browsers exist, web site designers target
their sites to look best in Netscape and Internet Explorer as they are the
most commonly used browsers on the web. We'll briefly look at each of these
browsers below, with an honorable mention at the end of a few new browsers
and reasons you may be interested in them.
Netscape Navigator (or Netscape for short) is a graphical
web browser which enables a user to experience the hypertext, photographs,
sound, video, etc. available on the World Wide Web. Netscape utilizes "point-and-click"
technology to select hypertext links and drop-down menus and toolbar buttons
to navigate and access resources on the Internet. The Netscape Communicator
package incorporates Calendar and email software into one package. Netscape's
Communicator also provides a useful web site HTML editor, allowing complex
HTML to be written for you in a WYSIWYG environment.
Netscape was developed in early 1993 by Marc Andreessen and
a team of students and staff at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
(NCSA). This was the first commercial web browser on the Internet.
Microsoft Internet Explorer (Internet Explorer or IE for short)
is a graphical web browser, like Netscape, which enables a user to experience
the hypertext, photographs, sound, video, etc. available on the World Wide
Web. IE, as it is also know, utilizes "point-and-click" technology
to select hypertext links and uses drop-down menus and toolbar buttons to
navigate and access resources on the Internet, and was developed by the Microsoft
Corporation. IE can be used on PCs running Windows 3.1 or better, or on all
Macintosh systems running System 7 or better.
Internet Explorer works as part of the Windows operating system on Windows'98
(or later) and NT4.0 machines, and optionally as part of the OS on Win'95
machines. IE has some features not available in Netscape:
- Circled in red is the address area of IE. Notice the drop
down menu (grayed out here) to the left of the address. As you move through
web sites, you can return to sites you've passed by clicking on this "Address"
menu to see a list of former sites.
- (Only on Macs) Circled in green is the Explorer Bar. Clicking
one of these tabs brings part of this bar out so you can visit other pages
or conduct searches without leaving your current site.
A few basic tips for navigating
the web: (top)
Web Site addresses
Also known as URLs, web site addresses function much like
your street address. They simply help browsers locate files. If you know a
web site's address, or url, you can type it into the Location box at
the top of the browser window, hit Return, and the browser will pull that
page up for you. Typing the address into the location box, as below, would
lead you to the MATRIX Education website.
Actually, we do not need to type the "http://" portion of
the address. The rest of the address is what really matters to the browser.
These addresses have meaning, so let's briefly discuss what each part of the
address does and what we can learn from a web site address.
A URL really begins after the "http://" section,
as this is what changes from site to site, so we will discuss what comes after
the double slashes but before the first single slash. Notice that the MATRIX
website address above does not contain the usual "www." The "www"
is simply a convention designating an address as that of a web page. If you
type http://www.matrix.msu.edu, you'll get the same page. How can one page
have two address? The short answer is "it's registered that way."
The longer answer can be read here: DNS registration
and IP addresses.
In the address above, we immediately know it is going to be
an education site because of the ".edu" in the address. Other top-level
domain names are .com, .org., and .net. The addresses with ".com"
before the first single "/" mark are commercial web sites.
Looking at the part of the address left of the .edu, we know
which educational institution we're visiting. This center part of a website
alerts web visitors to the source of the page. For example, by simply looking
at the address http://www.coke.com, we know
we're going to a commercial website most likely owned by Coca-Cola before
we even click the link. Returning to the MATRIX address, we know it's .edu,
and located at MSU, but what is "matrix?" This part of the address
is usually either "www" or, in this case, an identifier designating
"matrix" as a subsidiary of the larger domain "msu." We
will talk more about the parts of the address following ".edu" in
later modules, but play with web addresses and see if you can discover something
about the organizational scheme of the web designers and server administrators.
Bookmarking (top)
One of the great things about the web is that there are so
many websites to visit and so much information available on practically any
subject. But how do you remember some of those really long web addresses?
We don't have to if the software can do the work for us. Bookmarking web sites
allows you to return to any given website at the click of a button. To bookmark
your favorite sites, follow the instructions below:
Netscape provides several ways to bookmark sites, but
the easiest is to simply find the page you want to Bookmark, then select "Bookmarks"
from your menu and click "Add Bookmark." The next time you return
to your Bookmark menu, the title of the site you were visiting when you clicked
"Add Bookmark will" be listed under that menu.
Internet Explorer offers the same function, but it's
called a "Favorite." To add a page to your list of Favorites, go
to the page you wish to add and then select "Add Page to Favorites"
from the Favorites menu.
Other Web Browsers (top)
There are other browsers for the web. These browsers usually
cater to a niche market, but we mention them here so that anyone taking an
interest in alternative software or needing a smaller browser for small hard
drives or slower computers can get an introduction.
Opera Software, based in Kjeller, Norway, develops an Internet
web browser and client of the same name. Opera is the newest of the browsers
and promises to be the smallest yet fastest browser on the market. Currently,
Opera is only available for Windows '95, NT, and '98, but Opera Software is
developing Opera for Macintosh, OS/2, Amiga, BeOS, and OS X systems.
Opera is very small (a little more than 1MB to download),
and extremely fast on slow (386/8MB) as well as fast machines. Opera Software
also promises to strictly adhere to HTML standards, so web designers writing
web sites need not design specifically for Opera.
iCab promises fast downloads and a "trim" browser
without the extras offered in IE or Netscape. iCab is only available for Apple
Macintosh computers, but they are developing for Win'95, '98, and NT. For
those with slower modems or small hard-drives, iCab offers a very stable,
usable alternative to the larger packages.mozzila.orgMozilla is an open-source web browser, designed for standards compliance,
performance and portability. The Mozilla Organization coordinates the development
and testing of the browser by providing discussion forums, software engineering
tools, releases and bug tracking.
