Today, many people think search engines are synonymous with internet browsers. While certain major browser developers, like Google and Microsoft, also run mainstream search engines, like Google Search and Bing, web browsers and search engines are not one and the same. For example, when you open the Google Chrome browser, the default search engine is Google. However, you can use different search engines within Chrome, like Neeva, Bing, or DuckDuckGo.
A web browser—sometimes called an internet browser or simply a browser—is a software program for navigating the web. Its main function is to access the web and display websites like this one.
A search engine is software designed to retrieve specific information. The type of search engine most of us are familiar with is the internet search engine, which is a web service that finds information on the internet based on a user’s query, which is typically a set of words.
A search engine can be accessed easily from a browser, but they’re different technologies.