A Guide to Web Apps
A Facebook application (app) called Courses made the news when it raised more than half a million for The Founders Fund. The app lets Facebook users find classmates in college classes, share notes, start a forum discussion and even video chat.
This happened only because Facebook removed a Courses-like website feature just so third parties can create better versions. These third parties were web app developers, and they were successful.
This is just one of the cases to highlight how web apps are becoming good business, and providing convenience to a lot of users.
Another evident example is how Google is maximizing its presence in schools with over five million students in 145 countries. This presence comes in the form of Google Apps’ Education offering. This centralized site is targeted towards recruiting educational institutions, with tips on how to switch to Google Apps, among others. It also includes testimonials on Google Apps’ cost-effectiveness and ease of use to schools.
What is it with web apps that can generate this much interest and business? Applications accessed over the Internet may not seem like such a big deal now, but a lot of people forget the time of desktop applications, complete with installation CDs and licenses.
Web apps are popular because people can easily access them through web browsers like Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. They also update and maintain themselves without any installations of software to thousands and thousands of users.
Before web app domination
Before, software programs had to be installed separately in every personal computer. An updated version of that software means that the users have to install it all over again, after spending a huge chunk of money.
In contrast, web applications use web documents written in HTML or other standard formats which are used by a lot of web browsers.
In 1995, Netscape introduced JavaScript which let programmers to add certain dynamic elements to the user interface. The year after that, Macromedia introduced Flash, which was a vector animation player that could be added as a plug-in to web browsers for embedding animations on web pages.
Now, web apps typically include office software like word processors, online spreadsheets, and presentation tools). The best example for which would probably be Google Docs. Other applications include computer-aided design, video editing and point-of-sale.
Pros and cons of web apps
Web apps, being based in the web browsers, do not need a lot of disk space or memory. They are integrated easily into web procedures like email and searches, and provide cross-platform compatibility.
However, Internet interruptions become a problem to applications.
So far though, the reception of web apps is positive, and more and more choices for users are being made available everyday.
Sources:
Eldon, Eric. “Facebook education app gets funding.” Retrieved October 7, 2009 from
http://venturebeat.com/2007/12/03/facebook-education-app-gets-funding/
Rao, Leena. "Google Goes After Impressionable Minds With Education Apps." Retrieved October 7, 2009 from
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/08/google-goes-after-impressionable-minds-with-education-apps/
“Software as a service.” Retrieved October 7, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service
“Web Application.” Retrieved October 7, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application
(Published 19 October 2009, Smart Communications Inc.)
