Browser-specific Usage

We also studied the use of browser-specific extensions. These consist of HTML features (i.e., tags or attributes) added by vendors rather than by the standards process. Here, we contrast the use of such extensions in the first Inktomi data set (1.3 million documents, collected in mid-1995) and the second Inktomi data set (2.6 million documents, collected in November 1995).

The graph below shows the percentage of documents in which the four most popular extensions are used. The usage of most of these features has risen dramatically, indicating wide user acceptance. Other features, such as BLINK, have not experienced such growth.

Browser-Specific Extension Usage

The next figure indicates the popularity of various proposals for dynamic addition of functionality to browsers. APP and APPLET support SunSoft's Java ``applet'' language, DYNSRC supports VRML markup, and EMBED supports Netscape's third-party ``plug-in'' modules. All have enjoyed significant growth, though the oldest and most popular method (Java, first released in May 1995 [KARP95]) still has very low usage.

Browser-Specific Extensions Usage