A web browser is type of software that
allows you to find and view websites on the Internet. Even if you didn’t know
it, you’re using a web browser right now to read this page! There are many
different web browsers, but some of the most common ones include Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari,
Microsoft Edge, and Mozila Firefox.
No matter
which web browser you use, you’ll want to learn the basics of browsing the Web.
In this lesson, we’ll talk about navigation
to different websites, using tabbed
browsing, creating bookmarks,
and more.
URLs and the
address bar
Each
websites has a unique address, called a URL
(short for Uniform Resource Locator). It’s like a street address that tells your browser where to go on the Internet.
When you type a URL into web browser’s address
bar and press Enter on your
keyboard, the browser will load the page associated with that URL.
In the
example below, we’ve typed www.arcomputertech.blogspot.com into the address bar.
Links
Whenever you
see a word or phase on a website that’s blue
or underlined in blue, it’s
probably a hyperlink, or link for short. You might already know
how links work, even if you’ve never thought about them much before. For
example, try click the link below.
Links are
used to navigate the Web. When you
click a link, it will usually take you to a different webpage. You may also
notice that your cursor changes into a hand
icon whenever you hover over a link.
If you see
this icon. It means you’ve found a link. You’ll find other types of links this
way too. For example, many websites actually use images as link, so you can just click the image to navigate to another webpage.
Navigation buttons
The Back and Forward buttons allows you to allow you to move through websites
you’ve recently viewed. You can also
click and hold either button to see your recent history.
The Refresh button will reload the current page. If a website
stops working, try using the Refresh button.
Tabbed browsing
Many
browsers allow you to open link in a new tab.
You can open as many links as you want, and they’ll say in the same browsing window instead of
cluttering your screen with multiple windows.
To open a
link in a new tab, right-click the
link and select Open link in new tab
(the exact wording may vary from browser to browser).
To close a tab, click the X.
To create a new blank tab, click the button to the
right of any open tabs.
Bookmarks and
history
If you a
website you want to view later, it can be hard memorize the exact web address.
Bookmarks, also known as favorites, are a great to save and
organize specific websites so you can
revisit them again and again. Simply locate and select the Star icon to bookmark the current
website.
Your browser
will also keep a history of every site you visit. This is another good way to find a site you visited previously.
To view you history, open your browser settings-usually by clicking the icon in
the upper-right corner-and select History.
Downloading
files
Links don’t
always go to another website. In some cases, they point to a file that can be downloaded, or saved, to your computer.
If you click
a link to a file. It may download automatically, but sometimes it just open within your browser instead of
downloading. To prevent it from opening in the browser, you can right-click the link and select Save link as (different browsers may
use slightly different wording, like Save
target as).
Saving images
Sometimes
you may want to save an image from a website to your computer. To do this,
right-click the image and select Save image as (or Save picture as).
Plug-ins
Pug-ins are small applications that allow
you to view cer5tain types of content within your web browsers. For example, Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight are sometimes used to play videos, while Adobe Reader is used to view PDF files.
