Internet Basics : Plug-Ins and Server Push Extend Your Browser's Horizons

Plug-Ins and Server Push Extend Your Browser's Horizons

If you've spent some time on the World Wide Web, you've likely run into a reference to a plug-in. Either you've been to a Web site and been informed that you need a particular plug-in, or the one you have needs upgrading. If you're confused as to what exactly a plug-in is, this article will shed some light on the topic for you.

Plug-ins are simply software extensions or additions to your web browser that allow it to take advantage of some of the multimedia applications available on the web. They are generally free for the user to download, and installation is pretty straightforward as well. If you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer, any reference to ActiveX controls can be loosely interpreted as a reference to a plug-in. Netscape users can just keep plugging along (sorry, just had to do that).

Multimedia (sound, video, animation, 3-D, etc) is the driving force on the web right now, as is interactivity. Advances in multimedia technology are happening so fast that no browser can possibly be able to view or render all the different types of files you find. In answer to this predicament, a whole secondary industry has developed supplying the necessary software to do this. It's faster to develop a plug-in that can attach itself to your browser, than it is to keep upgrading the browser. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good in the sense that it leaves the browser developers to concentrate on writing faster programs (nudge, nudge), but not so good for the end user because it can be a real hassle keeping up with the latest plug-ins. Plus every plug-in you install requires more RAM. Did I say the software industry was driving the hardware industry?

As each new plug-in upgrade comes out, the major sites take advantage of the features, which means you must get the latest version as well. The key word here is "must", since the old version is obsolete as soon as a new one arrives. This is such a common problem that most plug-in developers have a form you can fill out online to be notified of upgrades. And to be honest, they do make it very easy for you - if you happen to land on a site that requires a particular plug-in, a window pops up and informs you, giving you the option to get it right away or not.

Of course not everyone will need all the plug-ins available. A brief look at Netscape's offerings would leave one wondering what they've been missing all this time. Almost 200 are available! There's a lot of duplication in there, especially in the audio/video area, so you can bet that we'll be seeing some standardization hopefully before too long. Right now, it means you have a choice - if you don't like a particular plug-in, try another one if it does the same thing.

Perhaps the biggest area of development is streaming audio and video. How many times have you sat waiting for a video or audio clip to download, only to find it wasn't worth it? These files can be megabytes in size, so we're talking a coffee or two here. Streaming video and streaming audio allow you start the download, and actually see or hear the file while being transferred. There are a lot of plug-ins available that do this, and the range of file formats is completely covered, as are most of the operating system platforms.

From the other perspective, that of producing web pages, be careful not to fall into the trap of using a technology that is beyond your market's reach. Just because a technology is available to you (with your high-end, turbo-charged, ISDN-connected system), doesn't mean your viewers will have access to it.

And just so we don't forget - plug-ins aren't just a gimmick to hook you into watching more infotainment or edutainment. Using the right combination of tools, you can present corporate training modules and other presentations live over the Internet. You can also do real-time updating of databases and spreadsheets over the Internet. Think about that for a while.

Depending on your interests and needs, you can probably get by with about three or four good plug-ins. A popular format for displaying documents is called PDF (Portable Document Format) from Adobe . The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available free of charge as a plug-in, and I would strongly recommend you get this one if you don't have it already. This format allows a print version of a document to be displayed as-is on the web. A lot of large publishing sites are using this format so it only makes sense to get it. I think we'll see more PDF files coming online.

For streaming video, the VivoActive Player is a good choice. The popular AVI format can be viewed as VIV files while downloading. Another good choice is the Apple QuickTime plug-in. A variety of file formats are viewable with this one. For Macintosh users, Maczilla is likely the choice to go with for most multimedia file formats. It even updates itself with a mouse-click on the Net.

Most plug-ins will work for both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, however some are browser-specific. Be sure before you download the plug-in that it will work for you.

Server Push

Before we talk about "server push", we have to have an understanding of what is meant by "client" and "server". Basically, a client is either a computer or computer program that asks another computer / computer program to do something for it. The server is the computer or application that provides, or "serves" the needed facility. In the Internet scenario, the client is a user running client software on their home PC. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) is the server. You connect to your ISP and your software asks it to connect to the World Wide Web. The server responds by providing your browser with the connections to web pages, as requested by your browser.

Most web browsing today is called "client pull", since it requires the end user to actively seek out and get to a particular web page. They are pulling you, the client, to their site. In the last year or so, a different approach has come on the scene, that of "server push". Television and radio are basically server push - information is delivered to you constantly without you having to go searching for it. You control, to some degree, where the information comes from by switching channels or stations.

Applied to the Internet, this means that now you can have different types of information delivered to you automatically. Once you set up some options and preferences, it's there all the time delivered to your computer. Of course, to keep up-to-date, with news for example, you must connect occasionally to your ISP, and this will automatically update the information.

The plug-in PointCast Network uses this type of technology. It's freely available and provides you with updates on news, weather, sports, stock events, and generally anything you'd care to know. You can customize it, having only the "channels" you want delivered to your computer via the Internet. This would be useful for businesses or people who just have to have the latest news. I personally found it a bit distracting, feeling almost compelled to follow stories I would normally not pay any attention to. Not to mention the fact that it replaced my regular screen saver!

Server push is not going to go away, as it provides a near-perfect method for businesses (and therefore advertisers) to get in your face. Watch (out) for more of it.

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Amer Neely