A browser, also known as a web browser or internet browser, is a software application that allows users to access the World Wide Web. It retrieves information from other parts of the web and displays it on a users desktop or mobile device. The most common features of a web browser include the browser window itself, the navigation and address bar, and options to view your history, settings, and other tools. The purpose of a web browser is to fetch content from the World Wide Web or from local storage and display it on a users device. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the users screen.

Some popular web browsers include Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, Lynx, and Opera. A web browser is not the same thing as a search engine, though the two are often confused. A search engine is a website that provides links to other websites. However, to connect to a websites server and display its web pages, a user must have a web browser installed.

When a user first opens a browser, if they are connected to the internet, it loads their homepage or shows a start screen with their favorite pages. Once open, they can browse the internet by following hyperlinks or using a search engine to search for what they want to find.