The earliest web browsers, such as Lynx, were entirely text-based. The rest of us were busy watching reruns of ‘70s sitcoms on TV.īack then, there seemed to be a pretty clear divide between web search engines and web browsers. The rules were all still being hashed out and most people using it were geeks and industry specialists. In some ways, the early days of the web were a bit similar to the Wild West. What Are the Early Days of the Web Browser and the Search Engine Like? Some are still with us in one form or another and others have long since disappeared into the digital ether. Those of us over a certain age probably remember those old search engines, such as: In 1989, the Knowbot Information Service allowed tech-savvy people to look for other early Internet users, not that there was anything really called the world wide web at that time.Īs the world wide web coalesced and new standards such as HTML took hold, other search engines were developed. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it still exists and is still used widely. It sounds strange, but in 1982, there was something called WHOIS. To some of us, the ‘80s seem as if they were just yesterday, or at least sometime last week.īut for the new generation, it existed sometime long before they were even born.ĭid you know that the first search engine existed long before the world wide web was even a thing? ![]() To get part of the answer to this, we have to go back in time a bit to the early days of the web. Why, in this age of fast information and the Internet, are so many people still confused about something so seemingly clear? Now it’s probably not 92% anymore who doesn’t know the difference, but more like maybe 75% (just a guess). Okay, the survey took place in 2009 and that is some time ago-however, the question of the difference between a web browser and a search engine is still legitimate. That most people don’t seem to know the difference. It’s even funnier when you consider that Google, a massive name in technology that made its fortune out of a seemingly simple search engine, conducted the survey. That’s a whole four people out of fifty knew the difference!Ĩ% or even less knew the difference between a web browser and a search engine in a street survey by Google. Out of fifty people, only 8% or even less of them knew the difference between a web browser and a search engine. So less than 8% knew what a web browser is, then at least the same amount, or probably even less knew the difference between a web browser and a search engine. The question at hand was what a web browser is.įewer than 8% of people knew what a web browser is-most people confused it with a search engine: The Story of 8%Ī funny thing happened when Google conducted a street survey on the mean streets of New York City in 2009. ![]() You use the browser to go to Google and then type “summer fashions 2020” into the Google search box. You can then type in a search term and the search engine will bring up a huge list of all the sites that match your search term.įor example, you open up Internet Explorer on your laptop and want to look up the summer fashions for 2020. You can use a browser to go to or access a search engine. You can use a browser to surf your favorite social media giant, for example.Ī search engine is a site that lives on the world wide web. What Is the Difference Between a Web Browser and a Search Engine?įor the sake of clarity, there’s a definite difference between the two, even though the confusion is understandable.Ī web browser is a piece of locally installed software, such as Internet Explorer or Safari, that you open and use to browse the web. So if you want to learn all about how a web browser and a search engine differ from each other, then this article is for you. ![]() While a search engine provides an index of content on the internet in order to provide relevant results to users’ searches, web browsers allow users to browse through different websites by generating graphical content. The main difference between a search engine and a web browser is what they do. Here’s everything about the difference between a web browser and a search engine that might seem obvious:
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