title: What does "enable DOM storage API" mean?
body: <p>I came across this Android WebView function <code>WebSettings.setDomStorageEnabled(true)</code> and from the name alone I can infer that it simply "enables DOM storage".</p>
  
  <p>The Android documentation, however, suggests something slightly different:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Set whether the DOM storage API is
    enabled.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>IOW, it enables the <strong>API</strong> rather than the storage itself.</p>
  
  <p>My problem is... I didn't know about the existence of such an API until I encountered this function.</p>
  
  <p>My Google search suggests that this API is closely associated with <a href="http://viralpatel.net/blogs/2010/10/introduction-html5-domstorage-api-example.html" rel="noreferrer">HTML5</a>.</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Does that mean that this function is
  irrelevant to web sites/pages that
  do not use HTML5? IOW, does it
  affect existing non-HTML5 page
  loading &amp; rendering at all?</li>
  <li><strike>Where can I learn more about the DOM
  storage API?</strike></li>
  <li>In particular, are there any gotchas
  or caveats that I need to watch for
  when calling
  <code>WebSettings.setDomStorageEnabled(true)</code>
  in an Android app?</li>
  <li>Why is it disabled by default?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p><strong>Update</strong>: I now can at least answer question #2: It turns out that the common name for "DOM Storage" is "Web Storage" and there is an entire Wikipedia article about this: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Storage" rel="noreferrer">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Storage</a></p>