And it's more non-standard. JPEG format offers 24-bit graphics and better compression for photographic images than GIF format, which is limited to 8 bits and anyway is under the cloud of a software patent fight. But until N2, JPEG pictures couldn't do one useful trick that GIF images could, that of progressive downloading. Netscape has incorporated support for a new way of storing JPEG images that allows them to load crudely at first and then to refine. There is disputation on the Net as to whether progressive JPEGs actually load any faster.
Frames are the prize new feature.
The webmaster can put constant, per-page items such as navigation bars in a fixed window. Because, of course, it turns out that you want slighly different HTML for the frame and non-frame cases. In a report the department also called on the telephone, computer online, cable, and satellite TV industries to spell out to users of their services exactly what personal information they gather and how it is used. But I take heart from these straws in the wind. TBTF alerts you twice a week to bellwethers in computer and communications technology, with special attention to commerce on the Internet.