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[[File:Safari 15.png|thumb|right|A web browser ([[Safari (web browser)|Safari]]) displaying a [[web page]]]]
A '''web browser''', often shortened to '''browser''', is an [[Application software|application]] for accessing [[
Browsers are used on a range of devices, including [[desktop computer|desktops]], [[laptop]]s, [[tablet computer|tablets]], [[smartphone]]s, [[smartwatch]]es and [[Video game console|consoles]]. {{As of
==Function==▼
[[File:Web browser demo.webm|thumb|Navigating to [[English Wikipedia]] using a web browser ([[Firefox]])]]▼
The purpose of a web browser is to fetch content and display it on the user's device.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reference.com/humanities-culture/purpose-browser-e61874e41999ede|title=What Is the Purpose of a Web Browser?|date=4 August 2015}}</ref> This process begins when the user inputs a [[Uniform Resource Locator]] (URL), such as ''<code><nowiki>https://en.wikipedia.org/</nowiki></code>'', into the browser's [[address bar]]. Virtually all URLs on [[World Wide Web|the Web]] start with either ''<code>http:</code>'' or ''<code>https:</code>'' which means they are retrieved with the [[HTTP|Hypertext Transfer Protocol]] (HTTP). For [[HTTPS|secure mode]] (HTTPS), the connection between the browser and [[web server]] is [[encryption|encrypted]], providing a [[communications security|secure]] and [[information privacy|private]] data transfer.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/HTTP-Hypertext-Transfer-Protocol|title=What is HTTP and how does it work? Hypertext Transfer Protocol Definition|website=WhatIs.com}}</ref> For this reason, a web browser is often referred to as an HTTP client<ref>{{Cite web |last=Steelman |first=Liz |date=2024-07-28 |title=What Is a Web Browser? Web Browser Definition |url=https://www.wix.com/encyclopedia/definition/web-browser |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=wix-encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=HTTP |url=https://paws.wcu.edu/holliday/cware/Web/HTTP.html |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=paws.wcu.edu}}</ref> or a [[user agent]]. Requisite materials, including text, [[Style sheet (web development)|style sheets]], [[images]], and other types of [[Website#
Web pages usually contain [[hyperlink]]s to other pages and resources. Each link contains a URL, and when it is [[point and click|clicked]] or [[touchscreen|tapped]], the browser navigates to the new resource. Most browsers use an internal [[web cache|cache]] of web page resources to improve loading times for subsequent visits to the same page. The cache can store many items, such as large images, so they do not need to be downloaded from the server again. Cached items are usually only stored for as long as the web server stipulates in its HTTP response messages.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nguyen |first1=Hoai Viet |last2=Lo Iacono |first2=Luigi |last3=Federrath |first3=Hannes |chapter=Systematic Analysis of Web Browser Caches |date=2018-10-03 |title=Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Web Studies |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3240431.3240443 |series=WS.2 2018 |___location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=64–71 |doi=10.1145/3240431.3240443 |isbn=978-1-4503-6438-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mishra |first1=Vikas |last2=Laperdrix |first2=Pierre |last3=Rudametkin |first3=Walter |last4=Rouvoy |first4=Romain |date=2021-04-01 |title=Déjà vu: Abusing Browser Cache Headers to Identify and Track Online Users |url=https://petsymposium.org/popets/2021/popets-2021-0033.php |journal=Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies |language=en |volume=2021 |issue=2 |pages=391–406 |doi=10.2478/popets-2021-0033 |issn=2299-0984|hdl=20.500.12210/57495 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>▼
A web browser is not the same thing as a [[search engine]], though the two are often confused.<ref>{{cite AV media
==History==
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[[Microsoft]] debuted [[Internet Explorer]] in 1995, leading to a [[browser war]] with Netscape. Within a few years, Microsoft gained a dominant position in the browser market for two reasons: it bundled Internet Explorer with its popular [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] [[operating system]] and did so as [[freeware]] with no restrictions on usage. The market share of Internet Explorer peaked at over 95% in the early 2000s.<ref name="searchenginejournal.com">{{cite news |url=https://www.searchenginejournal.com/mozilla-firefox-internet-browser-market-share-gains-to-74/1082/ |title=Mozilla Firefox Internet Browser Market Share Gains to 7.4% | first=Loren | last=Baker | work=Search Engine Journal |date=24 November 2004}}</ref> In 1998, Netscape launched what would become the [[Mozilla Foundation]] to create a new browser using the [[open-source software]] model. This work evolved into the [[Firefox]] browser, first released by Mozilla in 2004. Firefox's market share peaked at 32% in 2010.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Routley|first=Nick|date=20 January 2020|title=Internet Browser Market Share (1996–2019)|url=https://www.visualcapitalist.com/internet-browser-market-share/|access-date=4 November 2021|website=Visual Capitalist|language=en-US}}</ref> [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] released its [[Safari (web browser)|Safari]] browser in 2003; it remains the dominant browser on Apple devices, though it did not become popular elsewhere.<ref name="browsershare">{{cite web|title=StatCounter August 2011 data|url=http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201108-201108-bar|access-date=8 May 2021}}</ref>
[[Google]] debuted its [[Google Chrome|Chrome]] browser in 2008, which steadily took market share from Internet Explorer and became the most popular browser in 2012.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://digitaltrends-uploads-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/2011/09/net-applications-browser-market.jpg | title=Internet Explorer usage to plummet below 50 percent by mid-2012 | work=[[Digital Trends]] | date=3 September 2011 | format=[[JPEG]] | access-date=8 May 2021 | archive-date=20 November 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111120200340/http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/internet-explorer-usage-to-plummet-below-50-percent-by-mid-2012/attachment/net-applications-browser-market/ | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=StatCounter April-May 2012 data |url=https://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201204-201205 |access-date=8 May 2021}}</ref> Chrome has [[usage share of web browsers|remained dominant]] ever since.<ref name="statcounter" /> In 2015, Microsoft replaced Internet Explorer with [[Microsoft Edge Legacy|Edge [Legacy]]] for the [[Windows 10]] release.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gibbs |first=Samuel |date=2018-03-19 |title=Windows 10: Microsoft is looking to force people to use its Edge browser |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/19/windows-10-microsoft-force-people-edge-browser-windows-mail-chrome-firefox |access-date=2024-07-28 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> In 2020, this legacy version was replaced by a new [[
Since the early 2000s, browsers have greatly expanded their [[HTML]], [[CSS]], [[JavaScript]], and [[multimedia]] capabilities. One reason has been to enable more sophisticated websites, such as [[Web application|web apps]]. Another factor is the significant increase of [[broadband]] connectivity in [[List of sovereign states by number of broadband Internet subscriptions|many parts]] of the world, enabling people to access data-intensive content, such as [[Streaming media|streaming]] [[high-definition video|HD video]] on [[YouTube]], that was not possible during the era of [[Dial-up Internet access|dial-up modems]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Dial-Up Internet Today: Understanding Its Lasting Influence |url=https://simeononsecurity.com/articles/modem-magic_-how-dial-up-internet-works-and-its-legacy-today/ |website=SimeonOnSecurity |access-date=21 February 2024}}</ref>
Starting in the mid-2020s, browsers with integrated [[artificial intelligence]] (AI) capabilities, known as [[AI browser]]s, have become increasingly common. This includes both new entrants to the browser market and established browsers that added AI features, such as Chrome with the [[Gemini (chatbot)|Gemini]] [[chatbot]] and Edge with the [[Microsoft Copilot|Copilot]] chatbot.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Loic |first1=Lando |date=26 January 2024 |title=AI Browsers Are Here, and These Are the 5 Best Options |url=https://www.makeuseof.com/best-ai-browsers/ |website=Make Use Of |access-date=24 July 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Caswell |first1=Amanda |title=The rise of AI browsers is shaking up the web — here's why it matters |date=18 July 2025 |url=https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/the-rise-of-ai-browsers-is-shaking-up-the-web-heres-why-it-matters |website=Tom's Guide |access-date=24 July 2025}}</ref>
▲==Function==
▲[[File:Web browser demo.webm|thumb|Navigating to [[English Wikipedia]] using a web browser ([[Firefox]])]]
▲The purpose of a web browser is to fetch content and display it on the user's device.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reference.com/humanities-culture/purpose-browser-e61874e41999ede|title=What Is the Purpose of a Web Browser?|date=4 August 2015}}</ref> This process begins when the user inputs a [[Uniform Resource Locator]] (URL), such as ''<code><nowiki>https://en.wikipedia.org/</nowiki></code>'', into the browser's [[address bar]]. Virtually all URLs on [[World Wide Web|the Web]] start with either ''<code>http:</code>'' or ''<code>https:</code>'' which means they are retrieved with the [[HTTP|Hypertext Transfer Protocol]] (HTTP). For [[HTTPS|secure mode]] (HTTPS), the connection between the browser and [[web server]] is [[encryption|encrypted]], providing a [[communications security|secure]] and [[information privacy|private]] data transfer.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/HTTP-Hypertext-Transfer-Protocol|title=What is HTTP and how does it work? Hypertext Transfer Protocol Definition|website=WhatIs.com}}</ref> For this reason, a web browser is often referred to as an HTTP client<ref>{{Cite web |last=Steelman |first=Liz |date=2024-07-28 |title=What Is a Web Browser? Web Browser Definition |url=https://www.wix.com/encyclopedia/definition/web-browser |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=wix-encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=HTTP |url=https://paws.wcu.edu/holliday/cware/Web/HTTP.html |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=paws.wcu.edu}}</ref> or a [[user agent]]. Requisite materials, including text, [[Style sheet (web development)|style sheets]], [[images]], and other types of [[Website#Multimedia_and_interactive_content|multimedia]], are [[downloaded]] from the server. Once the materials have been downloaded, the web browser's [[Browser engine|engine]] (also known as a layout engine or rendering engine) is responsible for converting those resources into an interactive visual representation of the page on the user's device.<ref name=behindscene>{{cite web|url=http://taligarsiel.com/Projects/howbrowserswork1.htm|title=Behind the scenes of modern web browsers|publisher=Tali Garsiel|access-date=21 April 2018}}</ref> Modern web browsers also contain separate [[JavaScript engine|JavaScript engines]] which enable more complex interactive applications inside the browser.<ref name="howBlinkWorks">{{cite web |title=How Blink Works |url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aitSOucL0VHZa9Z2vbRJSyAIsAz24kX8LFByQ5xQnUg |access-date=12 March 2024}}</ref> A web browser that does not render a [[graphical user interface]] is known as a [[headless browser]].
▲Web pages usually contain [[hyperlink]]s to other pages and resources. Each link contains a URL, and when it is [[point and click|clicked]] or [[touchscreen|tapped]], the browser navigates to the new resource. Most browsers use an internal [[web cache|cache]] of web page resources to improve loading times for subsequent visits to the same page. The cache can store many items, such as large images, so they do not need to be downloaded from the server again. Cached items are usually only stored for as long as the web server stipulates in its HTTP response messages.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nguyen |first1=Hoai Viet |last2=Lo Iacono |first2=Luigi |last3=Federrath |first3=Hannes |chapter=Systematic Analysis of Web Browser Caches |date=2018-10-03 |title=Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Web Studies |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3240431.3240443 |series=WS.2 2018 |___location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=64–71 |doi=10.1145/3240431.3240443 |isbn=978-1-4503-6438-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mishra |first1=Vikas |last2=Laperdrix |first2=Pierre |last3=Rudametkin |first3=Walter |last4=Rouvoy |first4=Romain |date=2021-04-01 |title=Déjà vu: Abusing Browser Cache Headers to Identify and Track Online Users |url=https://petsymposium.org/popets/2021/popets-2021-0033.php |journal=Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies |language=en |volume=2021 |issue=2 |pages=391–406 |doi=10.2478/popets-2021-0033 |issn=2299-0984|hdl=20.500.12210/57495 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
▲A web browser is not the same thing as a [[search engine]], though the two are often confused.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/o4MwTvtyrUQ| archive-date=11 December 2021 |url-status=live|title=What is a Browser? |date=30 April 2009 |publisher=Google (on YouTube) |quote=Less than 8% of people who were interviewed on this day knew what a browser was.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/mozilla-explains/internet-search-engine-browser/ |title=What is the difference between the internet, browsers, search engines and websites? |date=17 June 2021|publisher=Mozilla |quote=Let’s start by breaking down the differences between the internet, browsers, search engine, and websites. Lots of us get these four things confused with each other.}}</ref> A search engine is a website that provides [[hyperlink|links]] to other websites and allows users to search for specific resources using a textual [[Web query|query]]. However, web browsers are often used to access search engines, and most modern browsers allow users to access a default search engine directly by typing a query into the address bar.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Manasa |first=D. |date=19 July 2011 |title=Difference Between Search Engine and Browser |url=https://www.differencebetween.net/technology/internet/difference-between-search-engine-and-browser/ |website=differencebetween.net}}</ref>
==Features==
The most popular browsers share many [[software feature|features]] in common. They automatically log users' [[Web browsing history|browsing history]], unless the users turn off their browsing history or use the non-logging [[Private browsing|private mode]]. They also allow users to set [[Bookmark (digital)|bookmarks]], customize the browser with [[Browser extension|extensions]], and [[Download manager
[[File:Chromium (web browser).png|thumb|right|220x220px|Traditional browser arrangement has [[user interface]] features above page content.]]
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{{See also|Usage share of web browsers}}
[[Google Chrome]] has been the dominant browser since the mid-2010s and currently has a 66% global market share on all devices.<ref name="statcounter"/> The vast majority of its [[source code]] comes from Google's [[Open-source software|open-source]] [[Chromium (web browser)|Chromium]] project;<ref>{{cite web|url= https://blog.chromium.org/2008/09/welcome-to-chromium_02.html|title= Welcome to Chromium|author=((Google))|date=2 September 2008 |access-date=28 April 2021}}</ref> this code is also the basis for [[Chromium (web browser)#Browsers based on Chromium|many other]] browsers, including [[Microsoft Edge]], currently in third place with about a 5% share,<ref name="statcounter"/> as well as [[Samsung Internet]] and [[Opera (web browser)|Opera]] in fifth and sixth places respectively with
The other two browsers in the top four are made from different [[codebase]]s. [[Safari (web browser)|Safari]], based on [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s [[WebKit]] code, is the second most popular web browser and is dominant on Apple devices, resulting in an 18% global share.<ref name="statcounter"/> [[Firefox]], in fourth place, with about 3% market share,<ref name="statcounter"/> is based on [[Mozilla]]'s code. Both of these codebases are open-source, so a number of small niche browsers are also made from them.
The following table details the top web browsers by market share, as of February, 2025:
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|-
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| <ref name="statcounter" /><ref name="cloudflare" />
|-
| [[Huawei#
| less than 1%
| <ref name="cloudflare" />
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| <ref name="cloudflare" />
|-
| [[
| less than 1%
| <ref name="cloudflare" />
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|}
=== Market share by type of device ===
Prior to late 2016, the majority of web traffic came from desktop computers. However, [[
== Security ==
{{Main|Browser security}}
Web browsers are popular targets for [[hacker]]s, who exploit [[Vulnerability (computing)|security holes]] to steal information, destroy [[computer file|files]], and partake in other [[Malware|malicious]] activities. Browser vendors regularly patch these security holes, so users are strongly encouraged to keep their browser software updated. Other protection measures are [[antivirus software]] and being aware of [[Internet fraud|scams]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Simple Steps for Internet Safety |url=https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/simple-steps-for-internet-safety |website=fbi.gov |publisher=[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] |access-date=21 February 2024}}</ref>
===Privacy===
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* [[History of the World Wide Web]]
* [[Timeline of web browsers]]
* [[List of web browsers]]
==References==
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