Why are browser plugins disappearing as the internet evolves?

Web browser plugins have evolved with the internet, filling in browser functionality that was once lacking, but are now being phased out due to security concerns and advances in browser technology. Governments and businesses need to move quickly to replace them with web standard technologies.

 

Since the internet became available to the masses in the 1990s, web browsers have become a part of our lives as a window into the internet. From the mid-to-late ’90s, when Netscape and Internet Explorer were the dominant browsers, through the years of Internet Explorer dominance, to the current era of upstart browsers competing, web browsers have evolved alongside the history of the Internet. Because of this close relationship, some say that the history of the Internet is the history of web browsers. But that’s not the whole story. Another important part of web browser history has been “browser plugins”. The term “browser plugin” may be somewhat unfamiliar, but if you’re a Korean citizen, you’ve probably installed Active X or Adobe Flash at least once.
Do you remember the “Cheonsongi Court” case that became a big social issue a long time ago? Fans from overseas wanted to purchase the coat worn by Jeon Ji Hyun, the main character of the drama “You from the Stars,” but were unable to do so because the forced browser plugins installed on Korean online shopping sites did not work properly. How did these ‘browser plugins’ come about, what do they do, and why are they a problem?
In the early days of the Internet, the World Wide Web was created for the purpose of academic research and sharing the results of that research. Early web browsers had only minimal functionality, such as displaying text and images. However, as the Internet spread to the masses, various requirements emerged, and browser plugins were created to compensate for the weaknesses of browsers that could not accommodate these requirements. From the 90s to the present, various browser plug-ins have been developed and evolved by various companies. Some of the most famous ones include Java Applet, Netscape Plugin API (NPAPI), Active X, Flash, and Silverlight.
Browser plug-ins were born as a technology to supplement user needs that cannot be met by the browser’s functionality alone, but in recent years they have been targeted for retirement. The Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning announced an “Active X Free Plan” to remove Active X from Korean websites, and Google announced the end of full support for NPAPI in its web browser Chrome. Why have plugins become a problem now that they’ve been around for so long?
In the past, plugins were necessary because browsers lacked functionality, but now browsers have evolved enough that they don’t need plugins anymore, thanks to “web standards” and “faster JavaScript engines. Web standards have made it possible to support multimedia content with just the basic functionality of the browser, and advances in JavaScript engines have made it possible to run fast programs within the browser.
However, the reason why browser plugins should be eliminated is because of their security vulnerabilities: because they run outside of the browser, a plugin containing malware can cause damage to the user’s entire PC. Recognizing these issues, the rest of the world has been working to eliminate plug-ins for some time now, and since Apple’s Steve Jobs announced that Flash would no longer be supported, it’s also been removed from most mobile devices. Microsoft dropped support for ActiveX and Silverlight with the release of its new browser, Edge, and most recently, Google Chrome dropped NPAPI support, leaving many local websites unable to function properly on modern browsers.
What’s the state of play in South Korea? The good news is that governments, businesses, and academia have recognized the problem and are actively working to remove browser plugins, but many sites still rely on them. Governments and companies should adopt web standards technologies to replace browser plugins as soon as possible, and users should boycott sites that use plugins to promote healthy changes in the internet ecosystem.