Commentary

InternetUniversity: Are You Ready for DHTML?

The dust is finally dispersing from the Internet advertising implosion, and advertisers are noticeably less skeptical about trying new things online. On the technology front especially, Web browsers are getting more sophisticated with every release, and agency creative departments are finally taking advantage of the Web’s interactive features.

One of their newly adopted favorites is DHTML — Dynamic HyperText Markup Language. This programming technology has been around since the release of Internet Explorer 4 and Netscape 4 back in 1998, but it was hard to take advantage of back then because each browser treated it differently and developers were forced to create two versions of every DHTML feature. DHTML programming wasn’t efficient and failed to catch on.

Until recently. Now that browsers are in the sixth generation, both have become DHTML friendly. It is no longer necessary for developers to write multiple versions of code for the same ad.

What exactly does DHTML enable advertisers to do? A combination of fairly complicated programming languages (HTML, Style Sheets, Document Object Model, JavaScript, VBScript, ActiveX, and Java), DHTML is quite simply a technology that allows any element of a page or ad to be changeable at any time, as one developer put it.

DHTML excels at creating low-bandwidth effects that enhance a Web page’s functionality. It can be used to create animations, games, and applications; provide new ways of navigating through websites; and create out-of-this world page and ad layouts that simply aren’t possible with just HTML. Sound is also accessible with DHTML. Although many features of DHTML can be duplicated with either Flash or Java, DHTML provides an alternative that does not require plug-ins and embeds seamlessly into a Web page.

Moreover, DHTML ads can be timed (any given static image or animated movie can be loaded onto a given page at a certain time) or triggered by human interaction with the ad, such as a mouse-over.

As any recent online ad effectiveness study will tell you, there are endless advantages to stepping out of the confinement of a 468x60 banner spot. DHTML effectively expands that canvas to 600x800 pixels’ worth of possibilities. (But remember: just because you can doesn’t mean you should.) —Mark Kecko

Next story loading loading..