Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer

For several years now, the Internet has been synonymous with the Web (short for world Wide Web, literally, the “world cobweb” in English), the service that has overshadowed, for end users, others such as FTP or Gopher, and has taken over some such as email (Have you ever heard of webmail?).

To access the infinite world that the web offers us, we need a specific tool, a program called in English browser and in Spanish we know how browser.

A web browser is a program that "renders" pages written in HTML, the language in which these pages are written.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a markup language, which what it does is introduce a series of marks in the text to define elements such as italics, bold, headings of various sizes or insert images.

In the latter case, that of images, they reside in separate files, which are referenced by HTML tags inserted in the middle of the text.

Initially available exclusively for computers, web browsers are found today on devices as varied as mobile phones (

smartphones and also conventional telephone models), or televisions (smart TV).

They have also increased their roles, becoming an application execution platform and front-end of diverse software, and allowing to expand its functionalities through plug-ins.

The main ones in the market

As the market for browsers or web browsers, these are the top contenders that are measured in the arena:

• Chrome. Google's web browser, which seeks to integrate with the company's solutions from the seeker to offer a very complete whole.
• Internet explorer. The historic Microsoft browser included in Windows and that, precisely, because of this integration brought legal trouble to the Redmond company.
• Edge. The substitute for Internet Explorer, released with Windows 10 and that breaks with it code source of Internet Explorer to get rid of all the problems that gripped that one.
• Firefox. A direct heir to the historic Netscape, it is a free browser that can be downloaded for free for various platforms.
• Safari. Apple's web browser that comes with Mac OS X by default.
• Opera. Available for a multitude of software platforms, both desktop and mobile systems, they say that It is one of the best, if not the best, on the market, although it is used by a minority of the users.
• Vivaldi. Born from one of the creators of Opera, it is the latest of the top-of-the-line browsers, also highly optimized and with a focus on customization.
• SeaMonkey. Another Netscape heir, tries to continue with the integrated suite of applications that the legendary seal had shelved to focus on the browser, and that Mozilla did not want to continue with Firefox.

Extensions

The functionality of a web browser can be increased by adding (installing) extensions that allow functionalities such as reading files in various formats (PDF, for example), or carrying out activities such as removing the advertising on the web pages visited, or protection against possible malware attacks.

All modern browsers provide third-party developers with APIs that allow them to create software diverse and integrate it as one more functionality of the browser, which the Internet user can download (generally there is a repository of extensions) and install.

Software execution platform

Thanks to extensions like plug-in of Java, web browsers have become true software platforms that allow access to online applications with which the user saves having to have those same applications installed in your computer.

The inclusion compatibility with a language of programming interpreted as JavaScript is, it has also endowed these programs with local software execution capabilities.

Examples of this are the applications of webmail like Gmail or Outlook, or Google and Microsoft office suites among others.

These same capabilities are also used by programmers so that applications developed by them to run on a server, show the data to clients.

Photos: iStock - kay / lvcandy

Themes in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer