Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    The 11 Best Coolers for Cold Beer on Hot Days

    August 3, 2025

    Gamers Are Furious About the Censorship of NSFW Games—and They’re Fighting Back

    August 3, 2025

    Lenovo’s rollable laptop is the coolest computer I’ve used all year

    August 3, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » Your Internet Browser Does Not Belong to You
    News

    Your Internet Browser Does Not Belong to You

    News RoomBy News RoomOctober 3, 20233 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    Google’s browser in particular stood out. With its minimalist interface, emphasis on extensions, and an ultra-rapid turnover of updates, it would eventually overtake Explorer to become the de facto face of the internet. This marked a turning point in the second browser war, which lasted from the mid-aughts until 2017. During this time, various browsers jostled to loosen Microsoft’s grip on the market, improving their products (and increasingly preempting Explorer) with features now considered pro forma to life online, such as tabbed browsing, private search sessions, phishing filters, and spell checkers.

    The tab originated with a little-known browser from the late ’90s called SimulBrowse (later renamed NetCaptor), but it only emerged as the default unit of internet exploration in the mid-aughts as a number of competitive browsers released updates with an emphasis on a refined tabbed browsing experience. Tabs afforded browsing an almost literal new dimension, allowing a person to be in multiple places at once. In this way, it’s a perfect example of how the browser as tool simultaneously responded to and created the phenomenology of internet life. The tab epitomizes the increasingly fickle, fractured nature of attention—the urge to click and start anew with each rising thought or impulse—but it’s also a testament to a conservative desire to keep options open, cling to momentary wishes and intentions, and never quite give up on iterations of past selves.

    The internet browser foments these anxieties. In 19th-century department stores, browsing was an in-the-moment, flight-of-fancy, leave-no-trace activity. But as a tool, the browser maintains a record of the places we’ve been, the information we’ve sought, the questions we’ve asked. The browser keeps tabs; it has a memory. And, crucially, your browser does not really belong to you. It remembers your history until you ask it to forget. Beneath the browser’s surface—which has shaped both the way the internet appears to us and the way we look at it—there is a rich subterrane of information about how we browse and, with it, who we are.

    When a person is a browser, where their attention alights doesn’t fundamentally affect the nature of their environment: The world does not change to suit, confirm, or contradict their whims. If, say, you flip through the magazines and newspapers in a bookstore or library and are attracted by a headline, the other magazines and newspapers don’t take note, become animate, and rearrange themselves to further entice your attention. Online, however, this is essentially what happens all the time. Though you might be “only browsing,” the internet responds to your habits—what you click on, where you linger—and reveals itself to you differently in response. The idea of browsing as a withholding of commitment—and, more particularly, of one’s purchasing power—isn’t really possible in this context. To use a browser is, directly or indirectly, to participate in commerce. No act of browsing is ever really idle. 

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleThe Hollywood Writers AI Deal Sure Puts a Lot of Trust in Studios to Do the Right Thing
    Next Article Pretty Soon, Your VR Headset Will Know Exactly What Your Bedroom Looks Like

    Related Posts

    A webcam that’s almost like a real camera

    August 3, 2025

    Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 8 just came out and you can already save $50

    August 2, 2025

    The enforcer that could break up Apple and Google is facing upheaval

    August 2, 2025

    I tried ‘Bricking’ my phone to fix my brain

    August 2, 2025

    BougeRV’s portable solar fridge is quietly annoying

    August 2, 2025

    Zuckerberg’s ‘personal superintelligence’ plan: fill your free time with more AI

    August 1, 2025
    Our Picks

    Gamers Are Furious About the Censorship of NSFW Games—and They’re Fighting Back

    August 3, 2025

    Lenovo’s rollable laptop is the coolest computer I’ve used all year

    August 3, 2025

    A webcam that’s almost like a real camera

    August 3, 2025

    States Are Moving to Protect Access to Vaccines

    August 3, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    Gear

    How to Clean Your Mattress No Matter How Gross It Gets

    By News RoomAugust 3, 2025

    One note: Be wary of over-saturating your mattress. Leaving liquid behind can cause mold and…

    Gear News of the Week: Insta360 Debuts a Drone Company, and DJI Surprises With an 8K 360 Camera

    August 3, 2025

    Today I’m toying with

    August 2, 2025

    Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 8 just came out and you can already save $50

    August 2, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.