Web browser
Application for accessing and displaying websites.
A web browser, often abbreviated as browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers can also display content stored locally on the user's device. Browsers are used on a range of devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, smartwatches, smart televisions and consoles.
- creator_of_first_browser
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee
- most_used_browser_2026
- Google Chrome (~69%)
- second_most_used_browser_2026
- Safari (~16%)
- estimated_users_2023
- 5.4 billion
- mobile_traffic_share_feb_2025
- 62%
Lore & Background
He then recruited Nicola Pellow to write the Line Mode Browser, which displayed web pages on dumb terminals. Its innovative graphical user interface made the World Wide Web easy to navigate and thus more accessible to the average person. This, in turn, sparked the Internet boom of the 1990s, when the Web grew at a very rapid rate. Navigator quickly became the most popular browser. Within a few years, Microsoft gained a dominant position in the browser market for two reasons: it bundled Internet Explorer with its popular Windows operating system and did so as freeware with no restrictions on usage. The market share of Internet Explorer peaked at over 95% in the early 2000s. Firefox's market share peaked at 32% in 2010. Google debuted its Chrome browser in 2008, which steadily took market share from Internet Explorer and became the most popular browser in 2012. Chrome has remained dominant ever since. In 2015, Microsoft replaced Internet Explorer with Edge [Legacy] for the Windows 10 release. In 2020, this legacy version was replaced by a new Chromium-based version of Edge. Since the early 2000s, browsers have greatly expanded their HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and multimedia capabilities. Starting in the mid-2020s, browsers with integrated artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, known as AI browsers, have become increasingly common.
Reader's Guide
Web browsers are fundamental tools for accessing the World Wide Web, serving as the primary interface between users and online content. Their significance lies in their ability to fetch and render web pages from servers, enabling the display of text, images, video, and interactive applications. The browser market has been shaped by intense competition, beginning with the browser war between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, which led to Microsoft's dominance in the early 2000s. Browsers have evolved from simple document viewers to complex platforms supporting web apps, streaming media, and AI features. Security remains a critical concern, as browsers are frequent targets for hackers, prompting regular patching by vendors. The open-source nature of major browser codebases—Chromium, WebKit, and Mozilla's code—has enabled a diverse ecosystem of browsers, though access to DRM-restricted content remains limited for independent open-source browsers due to costly license fees for Content Decryption Modules.
Did You Know?
- Starting in the mid-2020s, browsers with integrated AI capabilities, known as AI browsers, have become increasingly common.
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