When computers first became affordable and available, only a generation ago, they were understood to be a useful or amusing tool. People bought the programs that they wanted – word processors, games, spreadsheets – and installed them on their computer's hard drive. Personal computers were disparagingly known as “glorified typewriters.” Then came the World Wide Web.
What is a Web Application?
The applications that you had been running on your computer were interactive. You gave the computer commands and it responded: tap the space bar and a space appeared in your document. That same principle was being replicated at the level of the Web. At first, your browser would simply retrieve a Webpage and display it on your computer screen. Your computer lacked a way to communicate with the increasing number of Websites. At first, you needed to install code on your personal computer that was compatible with the code used by the server. However, Web applications are online programs that run inside your browser (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc.), rather than on your hard drive. Web applications incorporate code that is written for your computer as well as code that interacts with the Website to which you are sending commands and responses.
Website versus Web Application: What's the difference?
A Website displays static content. But a Web application allows you to actively communicate with a Website. If your computer simply displayed static pages, it would be of limited use to you. Personal computers became valuable when they could interpret and respond to commands (tap the space bar and get a space on the screen). Web applications do for the Internet what interactive programs like word processors did for your personal computer. They change it from a source of static information into a dynamic, interactive arena.
Why You Might Want a Web Application?
Many tech firms can build a Website. Building a Web application requires more skill and talent. A good Web application is designed to meet the specific needs of a client. Businesses need Web applications that allow their clients to interact with them. That interaction allows businesses to understand their market. The value of Web applications becomes apparent the moment that we consider the alternative. If a business wanted to communicate with its clients and to track their wants and needs (in the absence of Web applications), it would need to distribute software to all of its clients and ask them to install it on their personal computers in order to interface with the company's Website. However, thanks to the pervasiveness of Web browsers, all of the code that is required for the communication between the client and the business inheres in the Web application, which can be upgraded continually without bothering the clients.
Web applications allow you to send and receive e-mails, to watch and comment on YouTube videos, to create your own Website and track your audience on sites like WordPress, to buy and sell stocks, to shop on e-Bay, to pay your bills, and to play video games in cyberspace. In fact, whenever and wherever you are communicating with a Website, you are using a Web application.
Thoransoft can determine whether it would be a profitable investment for you, contact us now. We are happy to share our expertise with you.