What is the difference between a web browser and a search engine?

Wondering if a web browser and search engine are the same – quite sure they are not! I am kind of new to the web and would be grateful if you can tell me the difference between a web browser and a search engine. I hope this is not a dumb question.
Robert Paliotti

No question is dumb, only people… especially those who don’t ask!
Anyway, to answer your question – a web browser and a search engine are different entities; the former is a program while the latter is a web service. But that said, they work hand-in-hand to help you get the maximum out of the Internet.

Web browsers – what are they?

A web browser is simply a program – software – that’s installed on your computer by which you, well, ‘browse’ the Internet. For instance, whether you are on a computer, mobile phone or a tablet, the application in which you are viewing this page would most definitely be a web browser or has capabilities of one.

There are 5 popular web browsers – Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera – and there is high probability that you are using one of these.

So what does a web browser do? It helps you view documents, images, video, listen to music, play games and much more. Actually, a browser just displays web pages which may have such multimedia content embedded. And, obviously, you need an active Internet connection to ‘browse’ the web.

How are these browsers different from each other?

Essentially, web browsers have the same functionality. A layman doesn’t need to bother with the fine technical details. The one thing, however, that you should be concerned about is speed! In fact, browser developers are constantly at war with each other, always engaged in a one-upmanship game in which they try to prove that they have a better program than the competitor. Companies also spend extensive amount of money to advertise their product.

So why put so much of effort and money in making and distributing a product which is free? That’s because all these companies want a slice of the Internet pie – there is always a lure of dollars which come not by the browser program, but through search engines!

What are Search Engines?

Search engines are web-based services that find information (documents, images, video etc.) based on the query you supply. Generally, one uses search engines through a web browser program which acts as a front-end (interface) to the online service.

At the time of writing, there are three popular search engines – Google (which is the supreme leader), Bing and Yahoo!

For more, check the list of major search engines and web directories.

How do people use search engines?
Most users put the web address (URL) of the search engine in the browser to load the “home page”, type in the query and hit the search button. This is a roundabout way of doing things because, nowadays, you can query a search engine directly from a browser. All modern browser programs have a “search” field, typically located at the top; please refer the images below.

Browsers generally come with a default search engine, though you can change this via the settings – learn how to change the search engine in Google Chrome web browser.

And yes, like web browsers, which are free, there is no costs attached to use search engines!

So how do companies make money?

Aha! Excellent question!

As you have understood, browsers and search engines are kind of tied to each other, right?

Now whenever you query for something on the Internet, the search engine results page not only shows the ‘results’ but also ads! I’ve come to know that many of the newly initiated cannot differentiate the actual results from the ads. Anyway, since the ads are relevant to the search query, people end up clicking on them. This is how the companies make money. The image below shows the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP), which has advertisements related to the query.

By the way, advertisers pay search engine companies not just for clicks they receive but also for the number of times the ads (especially image advertisements) are displayed.

To conclude: A web browser is simply a program that runs on your computer while the search engine is an online service that lets you find information on the Internet. One typically uses a search engine through a web browser program.