The Desktop...

In this image, we have blocked out everything but the desktop. This is your local operating system display, the interface within which you will run anything you do on your computer. This could be Windows XP, or Apple OSX, or Linux. (In this case, it is Windows 2000.)

The Browser...

This image has the desktop blocked out along with the actual web page. What is left is the browser. This is the application which lives on your computer and displays web pages for you. This could be Internet Explorer, or Netscape Navigator, the AOL browser, Mozilla, or many others. Here you will find functions such as bookmarks, back and forward buttons, and printing commands.

The Web Page...

In this picture, we have blocked out everything but the actual web page. Everything within this area is provided by the person, company, or organization which owns that web site.

Plugins...

At the beginning we said "3 or more" layers. This picture shows two browser windows open at the same time (see the lower one peeking out at the bottom?). And the web page we see contains a plugin called the Quicktime Player which is an extra helper application for viewing video clips on a web page. The cool thing is that all of this stuff operates together smoothly so you don't have to worry about it!

Go to the next page for an explanation of the parts of a web page.