What is a Web Browser? What are the Various Parts of a Browser Window?

A web browser is one of many software applications that functions as the interface between a user and the Internet. The browser not only sends messages to web servers to retrieve your page requests, but also renders the HTML code once it arrives. That is, the browser interprets the code and displays the code and displays the results on the screen. Auxiliary programs such as helper applications and plug-ins can be configured.

Popular browsers include Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Fire fox, Netscape Navigator, Mosaic and Lynx. The first few are graphical based web browser, whereas Lynx is text-only browser.

The following are Important components of Browser Window:

Title bar: The location where the documents title is displayed.

Menu bar:The place showing the headings of the main pull-down command menus.

Tool bar:These are providing across to a number of single mouse click commands.

Location: The area where the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the document is displayed.

Hot buttons: Single-click buttons that provide a number of convenient features.

Scroll bar: Arrows that allow the user to display a different part of a large document.

Document Area: The part of the window that is used for displaying the currently loaded window.

Status bar: A field used to convey helpful information to the user, such as a URL or programmer specified message.

Hyperlink: A highlighted part of a document that, when selected, causes the browser to retrieve a display a new document.