License: Creative Commons. This is an early draft of a chapter on specialized Web browsing.
This essay outlines the evolution of specialized Web browsing tools past, present and future. It focuses on the key architectural principles that make the World Wide Web a truly world-wide phenomenon. Today, the world is dominated by visual Web browsers to the extent that the Web has becomes synonymous with main-stream Web browsers. This essay attempts to give a sense of perspective as to why at the end of the day, the Web as we understand it is a lot more than any particular lens through which we might choose to view the Web.