Question

How to retrieve Safari, or my default browser’s instance object, if I open the URL using following code for iPad

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://www.google.com"]];

Answer 1

You can’t, once you open the URL safari moves to the foreground, replacing your app. From the documentation:

If the resource is another application, invoking this method may cause
the calling application to quit so the other one can be launched.

But you can create your own view controller inside your app with a web view and implement some basic browser controls if you like. The UIWebView class has goBack and goForward methods you can use for that.