A browser is a program that you use to navigate around the Internet. Popular browsers include Internet Explorer from Microsoft, Firefox from Mozilla, Opera from Opera Software, Chrome from Google, and Safari from Apple.
Most browsers have similar features and all are free. Internet Explorer is pre-installed on Windows-based laptops, but you can download any browser by going to its associated website. You can install and use multiple browsers if you like. Here are some features to consider when choosing a browser:
Safety features: Browsing the web can be dangerous; certain sites will attempt to download dangerous programs such as viruses to your computer. Even if you have an antivirus program installed on your computer, choose a browser with robust security and privacy features. An advisor feature that ranks sites based on their safety record when they appear in search results is a good feature to have.
Favorites and Bookmarking: The ability to save links to sites you like to visit often is very useful. Just about every browser Favorites and Bookmarking features, and some also provide a feature such as IE’s Frequent page, which appears whenever you open a new tab. It provides icons for accessing your most-often visited sites.
Tabs: Browsers that use tabs allow you to open more than one site at a time so you can jump back and forth among them or open an additional site easily. Most of the current browsers use the tab approach, but an older version of a browser may not. Don’t worry, you can always update a browser by going to the browser creator’s site and downloading the latest version.
