A web browser takes us anywhere on the internet, letting us see text, images, and video from anywhere in the world.

How does a web browser work?

A web browser retrieves information from other parts of the web and displays it on our desktop or mobile device. The information is transferred using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which defines how text, images, and video are transmitted on the web. This information needs to be shared and displayed in a consistent format so that people using any browser, anywhere in the world, can see the information.

When the web browser fetches data from an internet-connected server, it uses a piece of software called a rendering engine to translate that data into text and images. This data is written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and web browsers read this code to create what we see, hear and experience on the internet.

Hyperlinks allow users to follow a path to other pages or sites on the web. Every webpage, image and video has its own unique Uniform Resource Locator (URL), which is also known as a web address. When a browser visits a server for data, the web address tells the browser where to look for each item that is described in the HTML, which then tells the browser where it goes on the web page.

Cookies

Websites save information about us in files called cookies. They are saved on our computer for the next time we visit that site. Upon our return, the website code will read that file to see that it’s you. For example, when we go to a website, the page remembers our username and password—that’s made possible by a cookie.

There are also cookies that remember more detailed information about us. Perhaps our interests, our web browsing patterns, etc. This means that a site can provide us with more targeted content, often in the form of ads.