Persistence in Internet Explorer 5.0 overcomes real limitations in version 4.x. The best way to appreciate the impact of persistence is to experience these limitations. There are four operations through which your Web page does not persist: saving a page to Favorites, going Back or Forward a page, saving a file as an HTML file type, and saving a page data within the browser's environment.

First, let's try adding the game board to your Favorites. After you have taken 3-4 turns in the Connect Three game, choose the Add to Favorites option from the game window's Favorites menu. Make sure you have some "o" and "x" pieces positioned on the board. Internet Explorer will add the page (basic.html) to your list of favorites. Now try selecting the page (basic.html) from the list of favorites. All "o" and "x" pieces are gone! The game board comes back with all nine boxes blanked. You have just lost the recent status of your Connect Three game.

The second limitation has to do with going Back and Forward a page in your browser history list. Play 3-4 turns again in the Connect Three game. Now go Back a page by clicking on the left-most Back button. You get back to our Column 24. Now go Forward a page. You get back to the game page all right, but to a totally-blanked version of it. The "o" and "x" piece games don't survive the Forward/Back drill.

The third limitation is experienced when you save a Web page to a hard drive, as an HTML file type. Play 3-4 turns again in the Connect Three game. Choose a folder to put your stuff in. You want to save three pictures: the "o," the "x," and the blank box. Click the right mouse button on each one of these three pictures, and save the GIF files to your folder. Now choose the Save As function from the game window's File menu, and save your Web page to your designated folder. At last, you need to load this HTML file in your game browser. The game will show up with nine blanked boxes. You have just lost your recent game status.

The fourth limitation is that if your browser's window closes, there is no good way to restore your Web page to its original status. The Save As option of the File menu does not support persistence of other-than-HTML elements. Play 3-4 turns again in the Connect Three game. Close Internet Explorer window and reopen it. You have just lost the recent status of your game. All nine boxes come up blanked.

The fifth limitation is that there is no trivial way to selectively save some data out of the Web page onto the user's machine. You can save the whole page as an HTML file (with the limitation described above), but you cannot save selected objects out of the page.