Web browsers

(This text is repeated from the page on languages )

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) was developed as a way of exchanging documents between different computer systems. Commands or <tags> inserted into the original (source) documents are used to show special features. For example the a heading can have a tag <H3> at the beginning and another <\H3> at the end to show that it is a level 3 heading.Other tags determine font styles, colours , sizes:

    Other tags determine font <strong>styles</strong>,
     <font color="#FF0000">
       <strong>colours</strong>
     </font>,
     <font size="+1">sizes:</font>

The computer program that interprets these tags is called a browser - you are probably using Internet Explorer , Mozilla , Netscape Navigator or Opera - four of the most popular browsers.

For those interested a pretty substantial list is given at :

http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Software/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Browsers/

The way the tags are interpreted will vary from browser to browser. Some systems can only show text or limited graphics so the common language HTML can only "suggest" what the browser/hardware should do. The people who compose HTML documents do not have total control over their appearance.

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Search engines

There are just as many search engines as browsers. The job of a search engine is to retrieve hyperlinks to pages that you want. The problem, as ever, is specifying what you want. There is an excellent page on this subject at:

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/searching/fournets.htm

which features the Google search engine - one of the most popular, of course. For a full list of search engines and their features try:

http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/

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related: [ Common core home | previous: network applications ]

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