how does a mobile browser differ from web browser

Question

There are a specific set of process happens between a user hits www.google.com and see the page in the browser. Can anybody tell me what all things that happen during a similar process. Also how mobile browser is different from web browser.

Answer 1

This really depends on what browsers you're comparing. For example, Safari Mobile and Safari for Mac are quite similar to one another, so much so that you often see the same page on both. However IE for Pocket PCs is much different than IE8 and pages would render somewhat differently in those two.

Usually, site operators check the UserAgent string that all browsers have, to see which browser it is. Then, it's up to the site operator to show a mobile site or a regular site based on whether they want to or not.

PPK has a great list of all browser quirks and features, at quirksmode.org. It's a must-read for mobile development.

Answer 2

1. Name resolution. www.google.com gets resolved to an IP address through domain name
2. HTTP Request. The browser sends a GET request to server.
3. HTTP Response. The server sends back an HTTP response.
4. Parse. The client parses the resulting document and resolves referenced assets (css, images, etc)
5. HTTP Requests. For each referenced asset, the browser sends another request to the server.
6. HTTP Response. For each referenced asset, the server responds.

In this respect, how http is requested, mobile is not different than desktop.