Websurfer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who navigates the internet or browses websites for information or entertainment
2. someone who actively explores different online spaces for various purposes
3. an individual engaged in online activities such as research, socializing, or shopping

Etymology: "Websurfer" is a plain compound: "web" joined to "surfer," with "surfer" itself meaning someone who rides ocean waves on a board. The "web" in this case is the World Wide Web, the hypertext system of linked pages that became widely used in the early 1990s. The image is the surfer's: moving lightly across a constantly shifting surface, picking up one wave after another, rather than digging into any single one. The term is a metaphor transferred from the sea to the screen. Someone who browses the web is figuratively riding from page to page, and the verb "surf" followed the same path, taking on the sense of hopping between websites. The noun is the agent form of that usage, and it carries the leisurely, skimming connotation of its source word.

Synonyms: internet user, online user