What are Plug-Ins?

I know it seems a long time ago, but it really isn’t that long since the World Wide Web first burst onto the world. It would be a bit like watching an old horror or disaster movie these days (well, we know what to expect and have a little respect for such things, but to the kids the special effects are hilarious), you see, the original HTML versions just didn’t have the capacity or the scope to deliver all of the fancy stuff we expect to appear on our monitors instantly these days, they simply couldn’t cope with anything so flash as videos, it took it all its time to deliver text, images and links.

What are Plug-Ins?

So what’s that got to do with plug-ins? Not the ones you stick into the wall to try and combat mosquito problems or “unpleasant odors”, but the ones in our computers you understand. Let me explain. When plug-ins were first developed it was to combat the limitations of the early HTML and enable it to deliver content of a more interactive nature – games for example. A plug-in is simply a piece of additional specialist software which processes those particular kinds of content. One good example of this is the Adobe Flash Player which enables the user to view web pages containing videos and interactive games, simply by downloading and installing the plug-in.

But does the plug-in have any interaction with the browser? No, not really. The browser simply identifies a space suitable for the plug-in, then moves over and leaves it to it. The plug-in can operate within that space and doesn’t need the browser any more. What makes this really good is that some plug-ins can work across loads of different browsers, but just bear in mind that can also leave the plug-in a little bit vulnerable to enable browser security attacks.