Web Software

COMP1260 > Application Software

Introduction This being the digital age, almost everyone has surfed the Internet or interacted with it in one way or another. This interaction is all made possible by web software, applications that run remotely and are accessed through a web browser over the Internet. Web software or web applications are very useful since they provide a user the ability to access applications or their files from anywhere in the world, providing they have a computer that has Internet access. You have seen many of these applications already. They vary from webmail applications such as "Windows Live Hotmail" and "Gmail", to Office applications such as "Google Docs" and "Mobile Me". Now that you have had a brief introduction to web software, we will discuss further what web Software is and how it is necessary in shaping the Internet to be what it is today.

...by students Like everyone who uses MSN or Windows Live Messenger, I use Windows Live Hotmail as one of my emailing tools. I receive, compose and send emails right through my browser. This is an incredible tool since I can do any of these three things from anywhere in the world. I do not need my computer with me. This upcoming summer I will be traveling to Europe. The way I am going to communicate with my family and friends while I am gone will be with Windows Live Hotmail. If it was not for web software, I will become homesick that much quicker.

What is Web Software?

Web software are applications that are accessed via a web browser over a network such as the Internet or intranet. Web software is coded in a browser-supported language such as HTML, JavaScript, or Perl. The popularity of web software comes from the ability for it to run on virtually any machine (Windows, Mac, Linux) that has a web browser. This popularity and idea of web software has developed the concept Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is where applications designed to run on personal computers now run on the Internet and are accessed through a web browser. What this means is service providers or companies allow a user to access their servers to interact with an application. The user will interact with the application as though it were on the users personal computer. This concept has many benefits.

Web software benefits a user in so many ways. One way is increased peace of mind. A user will never be hassled with the task of installing software and configuring the many settings required. The service provider takes care of this. Another benefit is a user will be able to run virtually any application regardless of the users computer hardware. This is because the application is not running on the user's computer, hardware requirements are in many ways eliminated. One other benefit is data reliability. A users files corresponding to a web application are never lost. This is achieved since the application and related files are ran and stored on many servers. All of the servers work together by storing backups upon backups of each other. When a server crashes, another server is there to take its place. Even though web software benefits a user in so many ways, there are disadvantages.

Disadvantages are present. By storing more and more information on the Internet, hackers have access to a greater amount of information if a server were to be breached. It is up to us, the user, to keep our data as safe as possible. One way to ensure this is to choose the most reliable service provider.

Examples of Web Software

You have seen and used many web applications during your time spent surfing the web. When checking, creating or sending an email through Windows Live Hotmail, you have been using a web application. The application itself resides on Microsoft Windows servers, but then is accessed via a web browser.

Another web application that you have seen is Google Docs. This application provides the user with the tools to create, edit, and manage, word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Each document is compatible with Microsoft Office files (.doc, .xls, .ppt). The benefit of Google Docs, made possible by web software, allows the user the ability to have access to their documents anywhere in the world via an Internet connection. The power this provides is phenomenal. There will be no more lost or forgotten essays or presentations since, via an Internet connection, the documents are but a click away no matter where the user is.

These two examples are but the tip of the iceberg. Web software is not restricted to just visual applications. It is any program that a user accesses over the Internet. To illustrate this for you we will talk about how web software is implemented.

How Web Software is implemented

Almost every website uses software to generate personal pages for a user to use and view. These pages are generated with programming languages such as JavaScript, Perl, JSP, ASP, and many others. Even though most of these languages do not provide a visual interface for a user to interact with like a typical desktop application, they do interact with a user through buttons, text boxes and other methods provided by HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), the language used to create web sites.

Programs written using these languages allow them to be run either on a server or a users computer. Most of the time, programs are designed to run on a server and provide a user with a customized web page. The benefit of designing a program to run on a users computer rather than a server would be for security, and faster program execution. The security that would be provided is simple; a program running on a users computer will send less information over the Internet. Faster program execution is only seen if a users computer is faster than the servers.

Conclusion

Throughout this chapter you have been shown what web software is, why it is beneficial, examples of the types of programs it provides, and last but not least how it is implemented in the Internet. If you would like further information about web software, we invite you to check out the references below.

References

• http://www.extropia.com/what_are_web_applications.html
• http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/what_is_a_web_application_

Previous Page: Software Suites

Next Page: Software at the U of M