Hello Guys! Today, I will discuss the difference between a browser and a search engine since many beginners confuse them with each other.
Search Engine and Web browser are two general terms that non-technical people use interchangeably. However, the two are different things. The only similarity is that both are internet software since they help us in web surfing.
We shall go through the definition and the difference between a search engine and a web browser.
Let’s discuss the difference between a search engine and a browser.
It is a software/application that recovers and views the information from HTML files or webpages on the web servers. Since the browser translates the web page scripts HTML, CSS, and client-side JavaScript into human-readable languages, a browser works like a script interpreter.
- Google Chrome
- Microsoft Edge
- Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox
- Opera.
Popular Web Browsers
It is a website (online tool) that helps people find information online. For this purpose, people insert the desired keyword into the search field. Hence, the search engine scans its index for the relevant web pages, displaying them as a search results page.
Since the internet is an immense source of information and resources, we always need various tools or software to reach these resources through the internet. For example, a search engine offers the correct information for a particular query asked, and a web browser provides easy access to the search engine.
- Bing
- Yahoo
- Yandex
- Baidu
- Duck Duck Go.
| Sr. No. | Web Browser | Search Engine |
| 1. | A browser is an internet application software retrieves and displays web pages. We commonly use Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Opera. | A Search Engine is an online software/tool (website) that helps users find content or web pages from websites. |
| 2. | A browser is an infrastructure. | A search engine is a service. |
| 3. | It is an application installed/present on your computer. | It is an online tool installed a thousand miles away on a system worldwide. |
| 4. | Users can install multiple web browsers on a single computer system. | Installing a search engine on the user’s system is not a need. |
| 5. | One can practice using a browser to access information or data on the internet. | A search engine points the user in the right direction of a website that links to the words entered by the user. |
| 6. | Web browsers are designed to present the web page of the current URL available at the server. | However, the search engine collects information regarding several URLs and sustains it. |
| 7. | A web browser employs a Graphical interface to assist users in experiencing an interactive online session on the World Wide Web. | A search engine possesses three main components: Search index, Crawler, and Search algorithm. |
| 8. | You can access/open a browser directly on your computer system or another device with a single click. | But a search engine can’t be accessed directly since you always require a web browser priorly installed on your PC to access a search engine’s homepage. |
| 9. | It does not need any database. However, it includes only cache memory to store cookies. | It comprises its database. |
Differences between Browser and Search Engine
I hope this distinction will help you understand the difference between the two, but some professionals speak loosely. Therefore, I do not feel much anxiety about it.
The confusion arises because it displays a search engine’s homepage when someone opens/launches a browser for the first time. It makes sense because the first thing you want to do with a browser is finding a web page to display.
From the above discussion, one can understand that a user can access or surf the internet through a web browser, while a search engine enables the users to search the internet once they have accessed it. Hence, it implies that one must use a browser (like Chrome or Firefox) to get to a search engine (like Google, Bing, Yandex).
An information portal uses a crawler/spider program to browse the web and index its content. In contrast, a search engine database contains the titles, URLs, and short descriptions for registered/indexed web pages.
Also, read What is Search Engine for the internet.
