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A web browser is software that lets you look at websites on the internet. Popular browsers include Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. When you open a browser, you see a home page, and from there you can go to any website you want.
Think of a web browser the way you think of a television remote and screen combined — your internet connection (which you already know how to set up) is like the cable signal coming into your home, and the browser is the device you use to actually watch and interact with what's being sent. Without a browser, you would have an internet connection but no way to see any of the content on it. The browser translates the underlying data into the text, images, and buttons you actually see on screen.
When you first open a browser by clicking its icon, it loads a home page — a default starting point, often a search engine like Google or a news feed. From that home page, you have two basic ways to navigate: you can type an address directly into the address bar at the top of the window (the long rectangular box), or you can use a search engine to find what you're looking for and then click on one of the results. Both routes get you to websites, but typing an address is faster when you already know exactly where you want to go.
The most important parts of the browser window to recognize are: the address bar (shows where you are and where you can go), the back and forward buttons (the arrows near the top left, which move you through pages you've already visited), the reload button (the circular arrow, which refreshes the current page), and tabs (the rectangular labels along the top that let you have multiple websites open at the same time without opening multiple windows). Learning these four controls gives you full command of the browser for everyday use.
Two practical things to know about browsers: first, if a page isn't loading or looks broken, pressing the reload button usually fixes it — it simply asks the website to send the page again. Second, all major browsers work essentially the same way; if you know how to use Chrome, you can use Firefox or Edge with almost no learning curve, because the address bar, tabs, and navigation buttons are in the same places and work identically.