Browsing is a high-level answer to the user question: "What machines are out there on the Windows network?" Note that there is no connection with a World Wide Web browser, apart from the general idea of "discovering what's there." And, like the Web, what's out there can change without warning.
Before browsing, users had to know the name of the specific computer they wanted to connect to on the network, and then manually enter a UNC such as the following into an application or file manager to access resources:
\\HYDRA\network\
With browsing, however, you can examine the contents of a machine using a standard point-and-click GUI - in this case, the Network Neighborhood window in a Windows client.
