Chapter 1

I was, for the most part, unsurprised reading about internet browsers. I consider myself relatively proficient at navigating websites and using a web browser. However, I learned a lot about the internet and the web. One thing that I learned was the difference between a web client and a web browser. Previously, I used the terms interchangeably, but now I know a web client refers to when I use an internet connection to log on to the web. A web browser is what I use to look at websites (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.)

When I was younger, I exclusively used Firefox because of the add-ons. More recently, I use Chrome because it links my google account to a lot of websites and the difference between Chrome extensions and Firefox addons is negligible to me. There’s always been a stigma about using Edge (previously Internet Explorer.) I’ve heard it’s gotten significantly better, but I’ve never given it an honest chance. I’ve tried using Opera because I heard it uses less memory than Chrome with it’s built in memory cap, but I found it was an equal memory hog as Chrome. Maybe I didn’t tinker with the settings enough, so it’s possible if it was a little more user friendly, I’d make a permanent switch. I’m very unfamiliar with Mac’s Safari web browser. In fact, the first time I used it was a couple weeks ago in my Java class.

Around the Myspace era, a few websites had basic HTML functions I was able to toy around with, but I was unaware that the generally accepted standard for reading websites is HTML. It’s interesting to me that, in theory, you’d be able to “read” a website just by looking at a text file. I also was unaware that a URL is broken down into four parts. I previously never put a lot of thought into why the “http://:” is before a website. Reading this module made me realize that I haven’t typed “.com” in a while. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but there was a switch where I just typed the website into my address bar and let Google take the wheel.

I was already aware of the basic navigation tools such as the back, forward, and refresh button. I have additional mouse shortcuts with those functions on my mouse just to speed through websites. This is likely a common memory for a lot of people, but reading about page tabs reminded me of when my mom would have a hundred tabs open and complain that her Chrome was slow. Maybe Opera’s memory cap has a target audience. Like how I use a search engine to find websites, I realized I don’t use bookmarks or a homepage anymore. I suppose I’m learning that search engines have gotten more advanced since I started using the internet.

I’ve recently started learning more about cookies. I feel like every website is begging for you to accept all cookies these days. I appreciate the automatic logins that cookies provide, but I feel like they can have more nefarious uses. The advanced Chrome features were useful for me. I’ve used the space bar to scroll down but somehow, I never tried shift + space bar to scroll up. I (ironically) love the name “Omnibox” for the address bar, I can’t believe it hasn’t caught on.