The forgotten HTML hacks that shaped the modern web

A survey published on vale.rocks and circulated through Hacker News examines the obsolete and non-standard HTML snippets that once helped websites navigate changing browsers, devices, operating systems and third-party services.

The examples span the Netscape and Internet Explorer era through later mobile and web-app technologies. They include compatibility meta tags, conditional comments, browser plug-in controls, frame-busting techniques and tools designed to manage how sites appeared in particular browsers.

The article also documents extensions associated with Google, Microsoft, Apple, Baidu and Skype. Some were created to control intrusive browser features or mobile data-saving systems, while others supported pinned websites, early hosted web apps and iOS home-screen experiences.

Other fragments were intended for search engines, directories and publishing services. The survey covers Google’s former handling of AJAX content, metadata for Yahoo Directory and DMoz, Accelerated Mobile Pages links, Really Simple Discovery and pingbacks. Several became irrelevant as the services or practices behind them declined.

The article says some functions have since been replaced by modern standards and APIs, including progressive web app definitions, fullscreen and orientation APIs, the View Transition API and Speculation Rules API. It describes the list as selective and points readers to the WHATWG Wiki for further examples, while noting that some snippets may still work in legacy browsers or specialised environments.