Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for transparently accessing multiple local and remote data stream types from an HTML browser. A micro web browser is disclosed which runs on the same platform as any commercial HTML browser, but in a separate process. Capabilities of the micro web browser include processing a data stream before the stream reaches the browser, translating different protocols to HTTP and different data types to HTML, where the translation is performed either on the fly or as pages are stored on the disk. The micro web server is further capable of allowing mixed media searches (e.g. searching first a users hard drive, then a users CD, then the World Wide Web.