The easiest way to understand the difference between the two is to think of the average file cabinet as a web site and all of the papers stored inside the file cabinet as web pages. Web pages are nothing more than information written in a programming language called hypertext that can be read and understood by a program called a browser. Netscape, the first browser program for us common folks, was privately written and released. Internet Explorer comes packaged with Windows and was written by Microsoft. Both programs are free, as are all the upgrades.
Some people swear by one and some people by the other.
Whew, I'm glad that's all over.