Browser Caching

What it is and how it affects you

What is a browser cache?

When viewing web pages, you view them through a web browser – Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or whatever one is installed on your computer.

Wowser! Icons of the different Internet browsers you can use.

When viewing a web page for the first time your browser will need to download content to display it on your screen. Most browsers will then automatically save this information in a cache folder on your computer for future access, which is known as browser caching.

Mega download: Your browser downloads and stores web content on your computer.

How does this affect you?

Browser caching means that when you visit a web page again your browser may load the previously stored content and display it rather than the updated version. Although this makes the page load faster as your browser doesn’t have to download any information, you can end up viewing outdated content. Weather charts on KiteForum, for instance, can be cached. Therefore it may seem as though the images haven’t been updated and the forecast information is old when it’s actually not.

What goes in... The next time you view the same page the saved images are shown.

Fixing the issue

It is a good idea to clear or empty your cache regularly to prevent it from becoming overloaded with content and affecting how web pages display. Click here to find out how to clear the cache.

• < Prev