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Several years ago I created a Java applet for exploring the Mandelbrot set. The applet is pretty simple, and allows you to zoom in and out and change the dwell limit. Recently I added a feature that allows you to share a link to so that when someone clicks on that link they see the same zoom level and dwell limit that you found interesting. It's nice to be able to share a particular view of the Mandelbrot set in a way that allows the other person to continue exploring the Set from where you left off. I think this community might enjoy that. For details, please see my blog posting about the update: http://www.symbolcraft.com/blog/sharing-the-mandelbrot-set/7/.

Works fine for me in Firefox 1.5. Do you have Java enabled? Check Tools/Options/Content to see if "Enable Java" is checked. JavaScript also needs to be enabled. If you don't have Java installed, you may need to go to http://www.java.com to get the free Java plug-in for Firefox.

That's a cool idea using an URL to send around plot descriptions.  A buddy of mine had the same suggestion for me (adding URL support).

I tend to agree with Mr. Lee (Nahee_Enterprises) about needing some control over colors however.  It could even be as simple as having several different color tables available and the URL would include a code indicating which color table to use.

I find color tables critical to clear visualization of a Mandelbrot set.  Consider this plot from your program ("hole in the sky" with the iteration count turned up to 1000:
(http://www.symbolcraft.com/graphics/mandelbrot/?limit=1000&re=-0.13396809895833325&im=-1.0168707431891022&zoom=24576.0)

I rendered it, also at 1000 iterations, in my program, Fractalworks.  I did a little tweaking and came up with this image: 
 
 http://www.pbase.com/duncanc/image/76077298/original

I tried to make mine suggest the same shape as yours.  In mine, the color table goes from white at high iterations to black at 48 iterations, so the overall shape of the plot looks like your "hole in the sky".  There is a logarithmic color change from white to black from 1000 to 48 iterations.  Then there's a white-to-blue gradient from 47 to 1 iterations.

If you want to see a really cool set of Java apps, check out this one.  It's a java app that is REALLY fast.  Also check out this link for doing realtime animations of Julia sets.

Also click the "contents" link at the bottom of the page for other cool apps, many of them Java applets.