Explain WWW Browsers

WWW Browsers

To be used as a web client,  a computer  needs  to be loaded  with  a special  software  tool  known  as WWW browser (or  browser   in short).  Browsers  normally  provide  following   navigation   facilities  to  help  users  save  time  while Internet  surfing (process  of navigating  the Internet to search for useful  information):

1. Unlike FTP and Telnet,  browsers  do not  require  a user to  log in to a server  computer  remotely,  and then to log out again when the user has finished  accessing  information  stored on server computer.
2. Browsers enable  a user to visit a server  computer’s   site directly  and access  information  stored on it by specifying   its  URL  (Uniform   Resource   Locator)   address.   URL  is an  addressing   scheme   used  by WWW browsers  to locate sites on the Internet.
3. Browsers enable  a user to create  and maintain  a personal  hotlist  of favorite  URL addresses  of server computers  that the user is likely to visit  in future frequently.  A user’s  hotlist  is stored  on his/her  local web client computer.  Browsers  provide  hotlist  commands  to enable  a user to add, delete, .update URL addresses  in hotlist,  and  to select  an  URL  address  of a server  computer  from  hotlist,  when  the  user wants to visit the server computer.
4. Many browsers   have  a  “history”   feature.   These   browsers   maintain   a  history  of  server  computers visited  in a surfing  session.  That  is, they save (cache)  in local computer’s   memory,  the URL addresses of server computers   visited  by a user during  a surfing  session,  so that  if the user wants  to go back to an  already  visited  server  later  on  (in  the  same  surfing  session),   the  link  is  still  available   in  local computer’s   memory.
5. Browsers enable  a user  to  download   (copy  from  a server  computer   to  local  computer’s    hard  disk) information   in  various  formats  (i.e.,  as  a  text  file,  as an  HTML  file,  or  as  a  PostScript   file).  The downloaded   information ‘can  be later  (not  necessarily   in the same  surfing  session)  used  by the  user. For example,  downloaded   information  saved  as a PostScript  file can be later printed  on a PostScript- compatible  printer,  where even graphics  will be reproduced  properly.