I recommend reading this, incidentally by the same author: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2009/11/02/why-do-we-have-an-img-element http://diveintomark.org/arc

I recommend reading this, incidentally by the same author: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2009/11/02/why-do-we-have-an-img-element http://diveintomark.org/archives/2009/11/02/why-do-we-have-a... It won't answer your question, but it will give you insight into the messy way the web evolves, which is about the closest thing to an answer you'll ever get.