Browsers are software programs that render web pages and help you move through the web.
The browser that triggered the World Wide Web explosion was Mosaic, a public domain graphical user interface (GUI) from the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA). Released in 1993, Mosaic made it possible to design documents containing images for display over the internet. Up to that point, an internet document was basically just a bunch of text on a server. In 1994, Mosaic ship-jumper Marc Andreessen released Netscape 1.1, following Mosaic's successful lead, by distributing the browser free of charge on the internet in order to establish a wide user base.
Popular web browsers today include Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera. See Browser Charts for information on some of their differences.
