Selenium WebDriver: get() vs. navigate().to()?

Question "What is difference between Selenium WebDriver get() and navigate().to() methods" is asked often on QA Automation interview. Answer is  there are the same methods performed HTTP GET request, but Navigation object has more ability to navigate like browser backward(), forward(), etc.

But navigate() method returns browser history in the form of Navigation object.
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javadoc for WebDriver https://seleniumhq.github.io/selenium/docs/api/java/org/openqa/selenium/WebDriver.html#get-java.lang.String-

WebDriver.get

void get(java.lang.String url)

Load a new web page in the current browser window. This is done using an HTTP GET operation, and the method will block until the load is complete. This will follow redirects issued either by the server or as a meta-redirect from within the returned HTML. Should a meta-redirect "rest" for any duration of time, it is best to wait until this timeout is over, since should the underlying page change whilst your test is executing the results of future calls against this interface will be against the freshly loaded page. Synonym for WebDriver.Navigation.to(String).

Parameters:

url - The URL to load. It is best to use a fully qualified URL

navigate

WebDriver.Navigation navigate()

An abstraction allowing the driver to access the browser's history and to navigate to a given URL.

Returns:

A WebDriver.Navigation that allows the selection of what to do next

WebDriver.Navigation.to

void to(java.lang.String url)

Load a new web page in the current browser window. This is done using an HTTP GET operation, and the method will block until the load is complete. This will follow redirects issued either by the server or as a meta-redirect from within the returned HTML. Should a meta-redirect "rest" for any duration of time, it is best to wait until this timeout is over, since should the underlying page change whilst your test is executing the results of future calls against this interface will be against the freshly loaded page.

Parameters:

url - The URL to load. It is best to use a fully qualified URL

navigate

WebDriver.Navigation navigate()

An abstraction allowing the driver to access the browser's history and to navigate to a given URL.

Returns:

A WebDriver.Navigation that allows the selection of what to do next

WebDriver.Navigation methods

Method Summary

All MethodsInstance MethodsAbstract Methods

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
void	back() Move back a single "item" in the browser's history.
void	forward() Move a single "item" forward in the browser's history.
void	refresh() Refresh the current page
void	to(java.lang.String url) Load a new web page in the current browser window.
void	to(java.net.URL url) Overloaded ve