User:Cristinac/tentativeobject

the browser

browse (v.) = mid-15c., "feed on buds," from Middle French brouster, from Old French broster "to sprout, bud," from brost "young shoot, twig," probably from Proto-Germanic *brust- "bud, shoot," from PIE *bhreus- "to swell, sprout" (see breast (n.))

Synonyms for browse:

   look around
   look through
   flip through
   leaf through
   peruse
   read 
   scan
   skim
   feed
   graze
   nibble
   survey
   check over
   dip into
   examine cursorily
   get the cream
   give the once over
   glance at
   hit the high spots 
   inspect loosely
   once over lightly
   pass an eye over
   read here and there
   riff through 
   riffle through
   run through
   skip through 
   thumb through

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azBl7ShTX_I

>The browser< is ubiquitous software, it is a tool that is so essential to our online navigation habits, that it has mistakenly become synonymous with the internet (link to What is a browser?). It is a mass communication device that falls oftentimes in the background of our online interactions. A browser is a retriever. It goes from point A to the indicated point B and collects the information that it can find at this location in order to return it to the user. Unlike a search engine, a browser requires specific knowledge of the destination's address. If we were to use an analogy to the library, a browser would be the librarian to which you would present the title of a book. The librarian searches through the entire collection and returns with the desired text.

>Retrieval systems< By submitting a query consisting of information needs into a system, the user is asking it to fetch it. What is interesting to note is that in information retrieval theory a query does not uniquely identify a single object in the collection; instead, several objects may match the query, which leaves out the browser as a mechanism that requires exact input. As compared to search engines who employ crawling techniques, the browser makes the user leap towards the information he is looking for. The communication between browser and human is facilitated through hyperlinks.

>As We May Think – Vannevar Bush<

>Physical Browser – Emanuel Goldberg's Statistical Machine<

Goldberg introduced his “Statistical Machine,” a document search engine that used photoelectric cells and pattern recognition to search the metadata on rolls of microfilmed documents. The machine would later be an inspiration for Bush's Memex – a device to hold all documents and records, a supplement to one's memory that could be easily accessed.

>What happens?<

• The browser sends an HTTP request through the internet to where the server that runs the website is located.

• The web server then sends back an HTTP response which is read by the browser to display the site.

• The response contains the website in HTML form, which the browser translates and displays the complete site as we view it.

• The HTTP request contains 3 parts:

the request line (includes command, web page requested and HTTP version number), 

a request header (includes browser in use, date and some other info) 

and the request body, which is optional.  

• The HTTP response also consists of 3 parts:

the response status (HTTP version, status code and reason phrase), 

the response header(optional info including server being used) 

and the response body (the website in HTML). 

>Web Directories<

>Web Stalker<

>Retrieval Theory<

>Options: history, tools, bookmarks<

>Text-based browsers: Lynx, W3m<

>the end of the browser?<

Browser wars no longer between same type navigation systems but between browsing and app-ing.