If you don’t know the difference between a search engine and a browser at this point and time you should not be in any position of power. You’re clearly out of touch with society and it’s intricacies.
I work in a law firm and I would second this assertion. Lawyers are some of the smartest people I know, but many of the lawyers I know also have very little clue of what the difference here would be, and I don't think any of them could describe what a browser cookie is. 80% of the general public not knowing either would not be surprising to me.
Yep, people here seem to be totally misunderstanding and overestimating how much the average person knows about tech.
I work in a role where I have to help clients sometimes access their reports via a portal. The clients ages range from 20s to their 80s, some very successful, some less, all intelligent at least. The amount of times I have had to explain what a browser is....or how to type in a URL ("but I just type the address in the Google thing!', searching for a fucking URL), and the absolute fucking basics. It is infuriating, and it is not restricted to one type of person or age group. Most people simply do not give a fuck about tech.
My daughter is 12 and has just moved into secondary school. She's commented that a lot of her class in IT cannot use a computer. They do not know how to use a filesystem, how to use a mouse or even a keyboard as they've grown up with iPads/phones and being able to bash in what they want into the first screen they see.
I have no issues with the judge. He asked for clarification, got it, and moved on. That's not being inept, that's being a normal person. Now if he keeps doing it past this point, and it starts affecting the case because he's incapable of understanding, then yeah that might be different.