The Internet and its benefits have made life simpler for us than we ever imagined. The whole world is under our hands and we can just search any topic that comes to our mind and get thousands of articles related to it. This is mainly done with the help of a web browser and a search engine. Many of you may be confused at this point about what the difference is between the two; because many people consider the browser and the search engine to be the same technology. However, these two are different but undoubtedly related to each other.

What Is A Search Engine And Web Browser?

To understand the main difference between them, it is important to first look at them separately.

Web Browser

A Web Browser in simple words is a software application used to navigate the internet. The browser actually allows you to access the content you’ve searched for. Through the web browser you are able to access your desired webpage as you are viewing it now.

How does this work

The main function of browsers is to convert web codes into texts, images, videos etc., so that they can be easily understood by a human being. The browser is in languages ​​like JavaScript or HTML that we don’t understand. Without the browser, these languages ​​would look like a jumble of incomprehensible letters to us. Therefore, a web browser is essential to use and surf the internet.

Web browser features

Most web browsers are pretty much the same with very few differences. There are some features common to all web browsers. Let’s take a look at some of these features:

• A Browser Window: As the name suggests, it is literally a window through which you can view and navigate websites.
• An address bar: The address bar is the website address or the webpage link. The address bar is at the top right of the page.
• Navigation: These are the back and forward buttons that help to navigate back and forward from pages and also the refresh button to refresh the page.
• Tabs: Multiple tabs in the browser window to open additional webpages.
• History: The history tab keeps a track of your navigation history that you can refer to whenever needed.

List of popular Web Browsers

There are many popular browsers used by users all over the world. The most popular are Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Samsung Internet.

Search Engine

Search Engines on the other hand are web-based services that help you in searching for your desired query. These are some keywords that when you add to search engines give you links to relevant websites that contain your required information.

How does this work

Each webpage is ranked according to different keywords, and once you search for something, the search engine runs through the rows of different websites in search of the most relevant ones for you. It’s like a library of books but a virtual one.

According to many researchers, there are about 1.8 billion websites on the internet and without the help of search engines it is impossible to find your relevant material.

Basic Search Engine Formula

While, there have been many complex ways of searching the internet, all search engines follow the following basic formula:

• Crawling: Web crawlers scan the internet for URLs and keywords
• Index: Data is collected by crawlers, then organized into the index
• Search: When users search for a query, key words are run through the index to find the required result
• Rank: The results are then divided into ranks to show the results where the relevant results are above

List of Popular Search Engines

Among the many Search Engines used by users worldwide, Google remains at the top taking about 90% of the total share of search engines that answer the question of what is the best search engine. There are other internet search engines after Google, including Bing, Yahoo and Baidu.

Similarly, there are many private search engines that have recently gained a lot of popularity. These search engines have become popular users because people are looking for search engines that do not track their personal data as this is what private search engines promise. You can view here a list of the best private search engines. Among the many benefits of using a private search engine, the most dominant one is that your privacy and data are protected from unauthorized access/use that has become quite common among major search engines.

Web Browsers VS Search Engines

The web browser and Search Engines are two separate but linked technologies with many notable differences. Many people do not know or understand the difference between the two and consider them to be the same when in fact they both have many important differences. Let’s look at some of the differences:

• Web browsers are software programs while search engines are websites.
• Web browsers are for surfing the internet while search engines are used to find relevant websites
• Web browsers are usually pre-installed on computers and mobile phones unlike search engines
• Their functions are completely different
• HTML and other scripts are used to communicate between the web server and the page as search engines discover and explore webpages on the Internet.
• Many components of a web browser include User Interface (UI), address bar, network component, data storage etc. A search engine has three main components including crawling, Search Index and the algorithm.
• Graphical User Interface (GUI), is used by web browsers to display web content while search engines contain their own database from which the required results are generated.
• Browsers store cookies, history, and cache unless the data is cleared by the user manually. Search engines on the other hand collect data from users’ search queries. There are some private search engines, however, that avoid letting data collectors gain access to your search history.

Final Thoughts

Therefore, Web Browsers and Search Engines are the main technology used by almost all of us around the world. Without understanding their true difference and purpose, it is difficult to get the maximum benefits that it otherwise provides. We hope that this article has helped you in understanding their differences and also about how to save your private search history from unauthorized access, that is by using private searches engine.