LiveAudio:
LiveAudio allows your browser to play standard audio formats including
AIFF, AU, MIDI, and WAV. Mac and Windows users can play audio files
embedded in Web pages.
Live3D:
Live3D adds the ability to work with 3D files in your browser. This
plug-in supports the VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) 3D format. It
allows you to view 3D objects, animations, and environments. It also allows you
to navigate in virtual 3D environments or spaces.
CoolTalk:
CoolTalk is an Internet telephone tool that is included with Netscape
Navigator 3.0. It provides high quality audio conferencing, a full featured
whiteboard and text-based chat. It allows you to send and receive calls from Web
pages.The Mac version of CoolTalk allows videoconferencing between Mac Cooltalk
users, and audioconferencing with other CoolTalk users. Netscape plans to eventually replace
CoolTalk with Live Call. Live Call will support the H.323 standard for audio and videoconferencing
over networks.
QuickTime:
The QuickTime plug-in allows Web users to experience video, sound,
music and text which is in the cross-platform QuickTime format. The QuickTime
plug-in is currently distributed with both Navigator 3.0 and Microsoft Explorer.
QuickTimeVR:
QuickTimeVR is an extension to QuickTime which allows users to view
panoramas and objects by navigating in 3D with a mouse. This technology enables
users to view 3-dimensional environments created from actual or computer-generated images. For instance, you could view a baseball stadium from the
pitcher's mound, panning right, left, up and down to see what the stadium looks
like from all directions. It also lets you click on the home plate to move to
that position and then review the stadium from that viewpoint. To use this
technology you will need to get the additional plug-in from the Apple site. There
are QuickTimeVR plug-ins for Mac, Windows95 and WindowsNT platforms.
RealAudio:
RealAudio allows browsers to listen to audio over the Internet. This
technology allows you to listen to news programs etc. when you want to, not just
when they are broadcast. CBS radio is one of the sites that publishes news
reports in RealAudio format, and several record labels are planning to put tracks
from lesser-known bands on the Web. The plug-in is available for the major
platforms including several flavors of Unix.
ShockWave:
ShockWave is Macromedia's answer to interactive multimedia for the
Internet. The results are impressive, but the RAM and bandwidth
requirements of this technology make it most suitable for the well-connected.
Plug-ins are available for the Windows 3.1, Windows95/WindowsNT,
and Mac platforms.
Adobe Acrobat:
The Acrobat Reader 3.0 plug-in allows you to open Acrobat (.pdf)
files that are embedded in Web pages. The Acrobat PDF format is a cross-platform
electronic document standard developed by Adobe. These documents need to be
created using Adobe's commercial software, but the plug-ins and other reader
software are distributed freely. This technology allows you to distribute
documents which retain the look of the original for viewing and
printing on several different platforms. The Acrobat 3.0 plug-in
is available for Windows, Mac, OS/2, Unix and Linux platforms, however,
several sources have reported bugs in the current version of Acrobat 3.0.
Articles on Web Web Browser Plug-ins:
Windows Sources [7.17.96]: Plug Into Netscape Navigator
PC Magazine [10.8.96]: Inside the Netscape Navigator Platform
MacUser [May 96]:
Just Plugging Along
Directories of Plug-ins:
Browser Watch