WEB BROWSER

A web browser is a program that lets a human access webpages on the World Wide Web. At a bare minimum, a web browser must be able to make HTTP requests and to present parsed HTML to the user in a form that he can understand. Most modern browsers present the user with a flat document that contains text and pictures, according to the HTML page received. Others may present serial text only, or even read the page aloud. While most people interact with their browser with a mouse, many advanced web browsers such as Opera provide full keyboard and voice control. Also, there are specialty browsers designed for people with physical handicaps and other disabilities. For use in a low-resources environment, text-only web browsers such as Lynx may be used. In addition to the text and pictures of standards-compliant HTML code, most of today's web browsers can display video, play music, and provide a limited amount of scripting ability. While these abilities do afford the webmaster the ability to design more elaborate websites, not all web browsers interpret the non-standard code in the same way. In fact, even the standardized code is not very well supported certain web browsers, notably Internet Explorer. The race to add more features at the expense of standards-compliance is known as the Browser Wars, and has led to a situation where very few websites display properly in all the major web browsers. From 2002 until late 2006 the Browser Wars have been very cool with little development done on IE, the most popular web browser in use today. However, in late October 2006 both IE and Firefox (IE's current arch-foe) released new versions of the software. This has renewed interest and awareness of the subject, especially in light of severe
security flaws in the new IE7. The first web browser was written by Tim Berners-Lee, who also invented HTML, HTTP, and wrote the first web server. The WorldWideWeb web browser was intended for use by physicists working in labs in different parts of the world, thus the HTML language that it supported was designed to be very easy to learn (for physicists). The language is based upon hierarchical outline structure, with tags spread through out the text that define the presentation of the page in question. In the 15+ years since its invention, HTML has moved away from its original goal of defining the layout of webpages, to defining the meaning of its contents. Separate technologies, such as CSS, are responsible for defining page layout today. User interface Most major web browsers have these user interface elements in common: [15]

Back and forward buttons to go back to the previous resource and forward again. A history list, showing resources previously visited in a list (typically, the list is not visible all the time and has to be summoned) A refresh or reload button to reload the current resource. A stop button to cancel loading the resource. In some browsers, the stop button is merged with the reload button. A home button to return to the user's home page An address bar to input the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the desired resource and display it. A search bar to input terms into a search engine

A status bar to display progress in loading the resource and also the URI of links when the cursor hovers over them, and page zooming capability.

Major browsers also possess incremental find features to search within a web page.

WEBSITES
When a site is too simple - people only visit once - when there is lots of information they need they will bookmark the site and come back. Web sites are accessed in many different ways, if you believe that people come into a web site only through the main page - think again. With present search engine software individual pages, text or images can be found in seconds. For me, web sites are used to convey my clients' messages to their customers in as clear and informative way as possible. It is to this end that I strive. The message and information are my primary goals not the tools by which it is created Today, the most important considerations for clients when investing in an on-line campaign are targeting - 81 percent; brand building - 77 percent; e-commerce - 60 percent; audience reach - 56 percent and click-thru rates to corporate sites - 47 percent. However, satisfaction with online advertising remains mixed, with 24 percent of those surveyed 'dissatisfied' with their online ad campaign and a further 28 percent 'neither satisfied or dissatisfied,' according to a report generated by The Myers Group. And how many Web Sites are there on the Internet? Google, the search engine announced (2008) that its total collection of indexed web documents and blogs is 165,058,044,651. (that is 8 billion - which is more than the population of the earth) Client computers use browser software (such as Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Explorer, Firefox, Netscape Navigator, Opera, ) to view documents (pages). Server computers use server software to maintain documents for my clients to access. Web sites are created by web authors using a language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language) that offers short codes (also called tags) to designate graphical elements and links. Clicking on links brings documents located on a server to a browser, irrespective of the server's geographic location. Sites may contain text in various styles and colors, graphic images can be static or dynamic, sounds at varying levels of quality, or a combination of all these things. Documents are addressed with a URL (Uniform Resource Locator or, for short the location address). Clients and servers use a site's URL to find and distinguish it among other sites. In this media there is the possibility of interaction between the sender and the receiver. Additionally, because of the interaction, the sender is also a receiver which is different from other traditional advertising media which "yells" at the viewer without any mode that the viewer can "yell" back. In this manner, information or content is not merely transmitted from a sender to a receiver, but rather "mediated environments are created and then experienced." (Steuer 1992). Thus, this "machine-

interactivity" is interaction with the environment (medium), rather than interaction through the environment (medium). An example of such environmental change can be found on Thelma Cameron's Art Gallery Web site Autumn Scene Art Print where the viewer can actually change the background colour to see if the print would fit a room's wall colour. This is something that television, radio or print media cannot do. We can also stimulate people's feelings by providing background music to a web page or set of web pages as can be shown by the example of the Images of Eastern Ontario web site. A very powerful tool that is used constantly in the television and radio mediums. This is why using the Web as a marketing communications tool is very exciting. In the scope of human communications we are going where no person has gone before. That is using a communications medium that is dynamic not static. Meaning it can be easily changed most times in real time and in some cases on a periodic basis without difficulty. Interactive Web use makes it possible through the use of tools such as HTML, DMHL, Flash, Animated Gifs, Password Protected Areas, JavaScript, JAVA, Active X and CGI (Common Gateway Interfaces) technologies not only to react or interact, but to change the medium through which the communications are made.