An HTML virus is, in this case, a small gif picture that requests its viewers to copy the picture to their pages. Needless to say, if some people copy the image, other people will copy it from their pages - thus making the picture spread in a virus-like manner.

It is also the most stylish and fashionable thing imaginable to have on one's home page. Is your page dull? Don't you have any visitors?

Get yourself an HTML virus today! Be the envy of your friends! Tomorrow, it may be too late!

History

I created the first HTML virus on November 19th, 1995, but the little stick-figure-type character is about five years older than that; it was invented in high school during some boring math lessons, dubbed a "virus", and scribbled into other people's notebooks. In 1991 and 1993, I wrote two games for Amiga computers that featured them.

If you decide to copy the virus, there are three things which I'd appreciate if you did:

1. Copy the virus to your page (you can save it by moving the cursor over the desired picture and holding down the right mouse button) instead of just linking to the images on this server.

2. Don't change the image filename. If the filenames start with htmlvir or animvir, they can be tracked with search engines.

3. You're welcome to make the picture a link to these pages. This will provide the inquisitive minds who visit your pages with additional information, and probably help spread the viruses (virii?) even more.

<a href="http://www.rebas.se/humor/htmlvir.shtml">
   <img src="htmlvir5.gif" border="0" />
</a>