Can anybody explain to me in plain English what the difference is between a search engine and a browser ?
I thought I had it figured out: Google is the search engine and Firefox (or Chrome) is the browser; InternetExplorer is the search engine and Bing is the browser ..... and than I start to doubt again. Why isn't Google f.i. both search engine as well as browser; why isn't Firefox both search engine and browser - what's the difference between the two ?
Chosen solution
hi, a browser (firefox, internet explorer, chrome) is a program to display websites. a search engine (google, bing, yahoo) is a particular website that provides you with search results.
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hi, a browser (firefox, internet explorer, chrome) is a program to display websites. a search engine (google, bing, yahoo) is a particular website that provides you with search results.
Thank you so much ! But now I'm even more confused: I thought Internet Explorer was the search engine and Bing the browser - but you're saying it's the other way around (I'll have to let that sink in for a while). When f.i. I want to go to YouTube and not use the icon on my desktop, but Google instead: Google is the searche engine, and once I'm on YouTube and I want to hear a certain song, that's where Firefox (browser) comes in; right so far ?) But: when I do the same with Internet Explorer, all of a sudden iE is a browser ??? And once I'm on YouTube I distinctly see Bing 'getting involved' ..... (I don't like iE and certainly not Bing, but that's beside the point). I just want to know, cause it bothers me ... (You don't happen to speak Dutch, do you ?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_search_engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search
Google started out with its search engine back in 1997. Then many years later in 2008 the Google company released their Chrome web browser.
Mozilla does not have a search engine site of their own.
Modified by James
Hi ! I sent you a private message earlier (don't know if I'm supposed to do that or reply on this site only ... ?) I've been going over your answer, and I think I get what you're saying (sort of). But somebody else on this forum just told me that Internet Explorer is a browser and Bing is a search engine, while I thought it was the other way around .... and now I'm REALLY confused ........ I was always thinking: search first; than browse - like: when you want to buy a guitar and you want to know where you can find a shop that sells them: that's when you use a search engine. And once you're in the store and you're looking at all those guitars, trying to figure out which one to choose: you're the browser now. Or am I completely off ??
Modified by user1342675
Many newer users may think a web browser is a search engine because the default homepage a browser may use is often times a search engine site.
The default homepage in Firefox is about:home unless the user changes it in Options/Preferences. The about:home uses the search engine that is set in Search Bar.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-set-the-home-page https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-search-bar-firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-popular-search-suggestions-firefox-search-bar
Firefox for a time before Firefox 4.0 (four.zero) Release used a default homepage of http://www.google.com/firefox that looked like https://start.mozilla.org
Bing is indeed a web search engine as it is owned and operated by Microsoft. This is why you may see Bing in say IE. Microsoft has a new web browser in Windows 10 called Edge.
Modified by James