Most everyone who uses a computer understands the concept of installing or downloading additional programs (software) in order to do more things, whether it’s word processing, advanced calculation, or video gaming. But not as many people know the nature of a “plug-in.” They’ve certainly used such a tool, though. Plug-ins are the tweaks and upgrades of sorts of the software world – little bits of software that add functionality to existing programs.
For instance, you already have a program on your computer that lets you travel and search the Internet, which is how you’re reading this article. That program is known as a Web browser, but on its own it can only look at certain types of content. Plug-ins expand the sort of content your browser can display. You might have the popular plug-in Quicktime installed in order to view video and/or play audio within your browser; it’s rare to find any kind of website these days that doesn’t make use of the Flash Player plug-in from Adobe, which also plays both audio and video.
Typically when you want new software, you either go to the store and buy it on a physical disc (a rapidly-vanishing concept) which you use to install it on the computer. Or, you can download it from the Internet (much more common) and install it – no disc required. Either way you likely have to track down the program. The nice thing about plug-ins is that a) they are usually free and b) their lightweight nature and ubiquity means that most anything that needs the plug-in to function will prompt you to download it if the plug-in is missing, and it will likely provide a button for download. On today’s Internet connections, something like the Flash Player takes only a few seconds or a minute at most to download and install, and then it works right away. “Plug-in” really is short-hand for increased functionality with minimal effort.