Yep, pretty much. Plugins allow you to run custom client-side code (that has access to the OS and its services) inside the browser. The most popular browser pl

Yep, pretty much. Plugins allow you to run custom client-side code (that has access to the OS and its services) inside the browser. The most popular browser plugin is Flash. It is implemented both as an NPAPI plugin (which is supported by Firefox/Chrome/Safari) and an ActiveX component which is supported on IE. Other plugins include the QuickTime viewer for watching quicktime video. The cross-platform framework allows you to keep one codebase for both types of plugins, which, I presume would encourage developers to write plugins since it's now easier to make it work on all major browsers without having to learn two sets of APIs. You can normally see plugins that are installed in your browser by visiting about:plugins