HTML 5: Flash back

In the late 90's, Web-based application got their momentum to grow. 3-tier application offer the most significant benefit to the software development: 

• No need to install native application (just use the browser), no painful to install and update on each client machine
• Cross platform (Build Once, Run Everywhere)
• Maintenance on the one place (on the server side)

With above advantage, many new web-based application was released. It also attract existing native-application to migrate to web-base application.

Beside that advantage, actually the web-base application has some challenge:

• Most of pure web-base application is not intuitive as native-application
• it is not easy to build user-friendly web-based application as native-application does. need extra man-days labor cost. 
• Cross-platform jargon not always work (browser's vendor sometime build non-standard tag, or new version of specification) 

Then Dynamic HTML come to the picture.

Which seem promising to build intuitive, user-friendly web-base application,

Javascript, VBScript, DOM and CSS (cascading style sheet) technology combine with static HTML. 

But, as you remember, big vendor bring their own specification. Microsoft with JScript and VBScript, Sun microsystem with javascript.

Regardless of vendor competition, dynamic HTML also still have drawback to bring rich content, intuitive web-base application. It is dynamic, yes. But only happen at the client side. You can have beautiful-dynamic looking web application, but cannot interact dynamically with server side.     

I have no idea when it is exactly started, instead of focusing to enhanced the dynamic html specification, some vendor come with browser plug-in/adds-on.

Plug-in is native application that can be embedded and run on the browser.
It is just pure native application! 
Sun Microsystem come with Java Applet, Microsoft with Active-X and one phenomenon is Flash Player from Macromedia (later Adobe).

Plug-in offering something that pure web-application cannot do - rich content, intuitive-user friendly application.

But again, it also bring objection, in-term of performance and security.
And the technology is proprietary to specific vendor (even Java claimed as 'open').

Here some objection on that Plug-in/Adds-On technology:
https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/active-x-exploitation/
http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/2010/10/18/have-you-checked-the-java.aspx

So, what next?
AJAX ?