Web Browsing

Pertinent Points

  • Choose and install an internet Browser that best suits your purposes
  • Use a secure, privacy focussed Web Browser for more private access the internet
  • You can install more than one browser on your device
  • Choose a Search Engine that best suits your purposes
  • Choose a privacy focussed search engine to improve your internet privacy
  • Use tabbed browsing to view multiple internet pages

What is a web browser?

To get on the internet you need an 'Internet Browser' app.
An internet browser or web browser displays known internet (or web) pages on your device.

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To display a website, the Web Browser must download files from the website on the internet.
The Web Browser then follows instructions (Code) that tell it how a web page has been designed and how to assemble it from the files supplied.

Choose Your Web Browser

You do not have to use the Web Browser supplied with your device.
It is possible to install another web browser and try it out to see if it works better for you.

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Common web browsers include Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple Safari, Vivaldi and Brave.
These browsers are all available on computers and mobile devices but may have a different functionality on phones and tablets compared to a computer due to screen size.
Note: The Opera browser has been sold to a corporate business in China so its privacy may be compromised in the future.

To compare browsers, please click to download this file which gives some ideas.

If you want to try another browser you can download it and install it on your computer or get it from the App Store if using a mobile device.

Secure, Privacy Focussed Web Browsers

Some browsers are more private than others. This means that they do not record as much information about your internet searches.
Businesses such as Google extract a lot of information which they sell on to other businesses but particularly marketers and advertisers.
If you are concerned about security and privacy use Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi or Safari web browsers

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With most browsers you can use the Private browsing option but this still allows some information to flow to business.

For very high security consider the Tor browser but it is harder to use and slower due to stronger security.
It may also make security services interested in why you are using it!

Default Web Browser

If you install another web browser it may request that you make it the 'default'.
This just means that whatever browser is selected as 'default' will be the one that is opened when you click on a link in an email or other application. You can only choose one default browser but you can open other browsers manually by clicking on the app icon.

What is a Search Engine?

If you do not know the name to type in for a web page the web browser cannot display it.
If you have an idea of what you might want, the Search Engine in a Browser can search the internet for the web pages that might have things that interest you.
This is a part of the web browser app that can quickly list the websites that might have the information that you want.
You can then choose what web pages to look at from a search list.

Int_Search

The most widely used search engine is Google. Microsoft provides Bing.
You can use either but you can also select a preferred search engine in the settings in most browsers.

(Note that Google is an internet business and started out as a search engine called Google. It now has many products but some names like Google internet browser, called Google Chrome and also the Google search engine can make it confusing.

Privacy Focussed Search Engines

You do not have to use Google search and can choose alternative search engines with your browser, even in a Google Chrome browser!
You can use the links below to go to each of these search engines or copy and paste them into your browser to set them as your preferred search engine.
Choose from:

Important: Some Search Engines claim that are privacy based but may have some issues like data management or ownership and are more risky than the above.
Ecosia - adds Bing ID to data so may do some personal tracking
SearchEncrypt, Ghostpeek, Startpage.com - part owned by data companies so likely privacy will be comprimised.

Choose your Search Engine

You can usually change the search engine in the Web Browser settings under a Search option.
If the search engine you want is not listed there is usually an Add option which will need you to identify the Search Engine you want.

This may mean doing a search with your existing Search Engine to find the new one that you wish to use.

Browser Tabs

Most browsers, including Chrome and Safari, are 'tabbed' browsers which allow you to have multiple web pages open at the same time.
The tabs allow you to switch between the different web sites of interest by clicking the tab you require.
You can have lots of tabs open, limited mostly by the power of your computer or mobile device.
To some degree, the tabs protect the browser from a crash if a web page becomes inoperative.
You can close that tab only with the remaining web sites on other tabs still available.

In the image below the small red arrows show the tabs of the browser on a computer which you may have seen before.

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The tabs you can see on a computer may be hidden when using a mobile phone because of the much smaller small screen size.
A tablet usually can display like a computer. The image below shows tabs on an iPad using Safari browser.

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Some browsers support tab stacking or grouping of tabs to keep areas of interest together

Tabbed Browsers on a Phone

The image below shows a Chrome browser on an Android phone.
On the gray bar at the top, you can see the Home button, the URL and a button with a number.
The numbered button indicates the number of tabs that are open, in this case there are 4.

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Also shown for the tab that is on display is the search topic that created the list of information below.

The image below shows the screen display when the button for the number of tabs (4) is tapped.
In this image, numbers have been added to the display (ie 1 to 4) so you can see the top of each open tab.

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This image also shows where you can tap to create a new blank tab without disturbing those you are using.
Each tab also has a close button (highlighted here with a red square)
You can close any tab that you don't need without affecting the others by tapping the X in the right hand corner of the tab.
It is possible too, using a finger to scroll vertically, to move up and down between the tabs to see more of what they contain.

If you want to look at a particular tab, just tap it anywhere (except the X in the right hand corner!)

*Because of the size and shape of mobile devices, websites usually have a different page size, shape and behaviour sent to your device to give the best viewing performance on the screen that you have.

Extra Security and Privacy

There is no reason to use just one browser on your computer or mobile device.
You can have two or more web browsers open at the same time and connected to different web pages.

Especially on a computer, you can use one browser for searching and reading / watching material and another that you use only for banking and other secure activities.
Each browser can also have different settings.
For example, the browser where you search and review material can be set to delete everything when it is closed.
No cookies, no history etc making a clean start each time.

Another browser can be set up for only private transactions like banking and shopping with log-ins kept for convenience.

This makes it a lot harder for connections to be made across your whole internet activity.

More Browser Skills

To get more detail of using a browser go to the page on Internet Skills click here.

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