After yesterday’s post (Extensions: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly) was published, a number of people asked us about two terms we used. The first was “browser” and the second was “page redirect.”

Although I’ve tackled the definition of “browser” before (What????), I’ll briefly repeat the definition here. A browser is software which interprets the code used to create a webpage and turn it into something we can easily use. To see an example of webpage code, click on the blog post mentioned in this paragraph.

Sometimes when we are talking with a customer on the phone and we ask them what browser they use, they’ll say things like “Yahoo” or “Comcast.” Unfortunately, neither of those is a browser – they are websites. There are lots of browsers but the most popular are: Internet Explorer, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Vivaldi. (Side note: since Microsoft is no longer releasing new versions of Internet Explorer, we strongly urge people to discontinue using IE. (Read this post for a deeper explanation: The Time Has Passed.)

As for the term “page redirect,” it pretty much means what it sounds like. When you type in a webpage address, instead of taking you to that address, your browser is redirected to another webpage. Now, this isn’t always a bad thing. For example, if you were to go to our old website address – www.keystonecomputerconcepts.com – we have a redirect built-in which will take you to our current site, www.4kcc.com. That’s a legitimate redirect. Unfortunately, not all redirects are a good thing. Malware and “bad” or “ugly” browser extensions can take you to nasty and/or fake webpages. If you’ve ever seen the webpage that tells you to not turn off your computer because it’s infected, that webpage is often a result of a redirect.

Hopefully, we’ve either refreshed or added two computer terms to your vocabulary. Never stop learning!