Web browser: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:51, 7 February 2015

Revision as of 06:53, 7 February 2015

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==Function==

The primary purpose of a web browser is to bring information resources to the user ("retrieval" or "fetching"), allowing them to view the information ("display", "rendering"), and then access other information ("navigation", "following links").

This process begins when the user inputs a [[Uniform Resource Locator]] (URL), for example ''<nowiki>http://en.wikipedia.org/</nowiki>'', into the browser. The prefix of the URL, the Uniform Resource Identifier or [[URI]], determines how the URL will be interpreted. The most commonly used kind of URI starts with ''http:'' and identifies a resource to be retrieved over the [[Hypertext Transfer Protocol]] (HTTP).<ref>{{cite web | title = Browser Information | publisher = DBF | url = http://downloadbrowserfree.com/ | accessdate = 2012-06-07}}</ref> Many browsers also support a variety of other prefixes, such as ''https:'' for [[HTTPS]], ''ftp:'' for the [[File Transfer Protocol]], and ''file:'' for [[computer file|local files]]. Prefixes that the web browser cannot directly handle are often handed off to another application entirely. For example, ''mailto:'' URIs are usually passed to the user's default e-mail application, and ''news:'' URIs are passed to the user's default newsgroup reader.