Your browser is not the internet either
What the browser is, what every control around the edge does, and that changing browsers changes nothing about the web itself.
A browser is a program whose only job is to fetch pages and draw them on your screen. That is the entire description. It is a reading machine.
Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox are four different reading machines looking at exactly the same web — four pairs of glasses, one world. A website cannot tell which one you own and does not much care.
A browser will warn you about a great deal. There is one thing it cannot tell you, and it is the thing people most want to know.
Key points
- A browser is a program that fetches pages and draws them — nothing more
- Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox all reach exactly the same web
- The controls around the edge are yours; the page in the middle is somebody else’s
- A padlock means the line is private, not that the company is honest
What to remember
- The browser is the window frame. Everything you read through it belongs to somebody else.
- The back arrow is the safest button on a computer. It undoes a move without asking you anything.
- Everything around the edge belongs to you. Everything in the middle belongs to somebody else.
Try this
Open your own browser and press and hold the back arrow. The list that drops down is everywhere you have been in that tab. Most people have used browsers for years without meeting it.
Practice: Your browser is not the internet either. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.