What is a Browser?
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as evidence that ordinary users often don't understand basic technology like browsers, as a reminder for designers and developers.
What it is
Street interviews of over 50 passersby in Times Square, asked what a browser is. Many answers show people confuse browsers with search engines or the internet.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2009 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends wturner · 2014-05 · on “Ask HN: How do you deal with inferiority complex?”
Your strengths and weaknesses have curves, troughs, peaks and spaghetti complexity. Personally I completely accept that I'm pretty mediocre as a "developer", but honestly I don't really care because I don't personally consider myself a developer, I just look at myself as someone who simply likes to explore, learn and play with web based technologies. This way I don't get sucked into the pigeon hole psychology of the professional world. If someone else wants to look at me in that light that's fine , but I keep an invisible boundary between myself and that kind of thing. I also like to occasionally and inadvertently ask inane questions at stackoverflow which get down voted at machine gun inter
Recommends michaelbuckbee · 2016-03 · on “Why Tesla Motors Finally Acquired Tesla.com”
It's old now (and I wonder how much it's changed) - but there is this great video of Google employees asking people in Times Square what the difference is between a browser and a search engine: [this video] Most people conflate the two. IIRC the video was used internally as a tool to press the notion that they _had_ to build a browser or risk losing their search engine dominance.
Cites Gibbon · 2009-07 · on “Fake Steve Jobs on Chrome OS”
Behold.. What is a Browser? [this video] Most people don't have the slighest clue what a browser is, nevermind an opinion about them.
Cites cesare · 2009-07 · on “Apps 'to be as big as internet' ”
Good analysis. When I first read Vic Gundotra (engineering v.p. at Google) statements he convinced me. But I'm not so sure anymore that browser delivered apps will win against custom applications. Most users don't even know what a browser is ( [this video] - btw, this has been made by a Google intern) and custom apps already provide a better experience for them. The proof comes from Google itself: Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Mobile etc. Browsers could soon become obsolete for the vast majority of users - who will probably completely ditch PCs in favor or smartphones. Edit: I'm not saying that I like it. I'm just saying it could happen.
Cites hwijaya · 2009-07 · on “Forget Cuil, check this out: one guy and a bunch of pcs”
That's what makes technology industry interesting. Things are quite unpredictable and like it or not, none of us knows exactly how things will pan out. Google's strength is obviously in brand penetration when it comes to search engine. After all, most people outside us hardly even know about "Google Chrome" after making such a huge splash all over the place. ( [this video] ). So, i wouldn't expect them to type in www.cuil.com or WolframAlpha without something is changing in the landscape that alter user behavior.
Cites jeromec · 2010-01 · on “Ask HN: Is a .net domain good enough?”
I agree with pg. If your site is targeted to mainstream, as opposed to geeks or early adopters, you would have to fight really hard to go against default mind-share people will have for dot com. Remember, many people still don't know "what is a browser?" [this video]
Cites Timothee · 2010-09 · on “How do i go back to regular Google?”
As an example, a video made by Google that illustrates that point: [this video] , focusing on the difference between a browser and a search engine.
Cites mgunes · 2010-12 · on “Paypal's logo designed to look like a recommendation?”
Right; and the people in the "What is a browser?" video [1] are not stupid; they're busy , have adapted very well to the extreme compartmentalization of 21st century Westernized life and knowledge, and are largely uninterested in what we know as computing. To invoke a central theme of "Paradox of the Active User" [2]: they're all experts in one field or another, and would make many a hacker here look like someone who doesn't know what something as supposedly generic as a "browser" is in their respective fields. That's far from "stupid". You could replace a good 80% of the instances of "stupid" with "busy" in design discussions, and you'd end up with better discussions. [1] [this video] [2] [LINK]