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.
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.
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.