A browser is a program that provides a way to look at, read, and even hear all the information on the World Wide Web. The word "browser" seems to have originated prior to the Web as a generic term for user interfaces that let you browse text files online . By the time the first Web browser with a graphical user interface was invented (it was called Mosaic), the term seemed to apply to Web content, too. Technically, a Web browser is a client program that uses the Hypertext Transfer Pro tocol (HTTP) to make requests of Web servers throughout the Internet on behalf of the browser user. Currently, the most popular browser is Netscape Navigator. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is gaining usage as Windows 95 installations grow. A commer cial version of the original browser, Mosaic, is in use. Other browsers include the browsers for the online services, America Online, Compuserve, and Prodigy, but these are beginning to offer Netscape or Internet Explorer in addi tion to or as a replacement for their own. Lynx is a text-only browser for UNIX shell and VMS users.

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