Why browsers matter

With many of us spending more time in a browser than in our cars, it's important to understand what web browsers are and why the choice of a browser matters.

A browser is a piece of software that serves as your window to the World Wide Web. While operating systems - like Mac OS, Windows or Linux - allow computer users to manage the hardware and software resources of their computers (such as files, folders and application programmes), a browser allows users to view web pages and interact with the myriad applications found online in the web. Many of the activities we now take for granted, like creating and sharing documents, chatting via a webcam and listening to music are increasingly facilitated through the browser. It's worth considering that many of the most popular and fastest growing innovations in recent years - such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube - are web-based applications. Whereas in years past we'd use software applications running on our personal computers, now we access them through our browsers, with the applications themselves running on servers somewhere on the Internet.

Browsers evolving

The first browser was invented in 1989, over 20 years ago, emerging at a time when the Internet was first becoming commercially available. Over the past 20 years, many browsers have been developed and all of them continue to evolve, bringing new and innovative features to their users. In the past year alone, we have seen new releases from all the major browser makers.

These new versions include better speed and security features and many browsers are beginning to support the next generation of web technologies, called HTML5. As people rely on today's browsers more and more to provide the 'heavy-lifting' needed to run demanding applications - such as streaming video, or interactive mapping programmes - consumers require that their browser handle these activities while remaining blazingly fast, stable, and easy to use.

Besides speed, stability and simplicity, another important browser feature to consider is security.

Security is paramount

With the browser being your doorway to the web, it has become a prime target for hackers who want to download software onto your computer or trick you into providing personal information. Luckily, all browsers have made strong advancements in the area of security. It's important that your browser provides extra layers of protection around every website, that it alerts you if you're about to visit a site that is known to contain malicious programs, and that it updates quickly as soon as a security patch is available.

Internet users now have an unprecedented opportunity to choose a default browser for their computers. While there are many browsers available, it's important that you explore the various options and learn about the functionality each one provides. I encourage you to take the time to learn about the various options, test drive a few of them and pick the browser that works best for you.