Ever translated your phrases online, just to impress your chat buddy? It might have looked a lot easier – pasting your query (in your native language) and translating it with just a small click. But take it from me; the applet you have just used has a far more complicated background & history.
Though many webhosting services offer you some ready to use web applets, there are many out there who have already successfully marked their place on the Internet. Web applications are those software which do not (generally) need any sort of installation on standalone systems & can run through your web browser (which is referred to as a client in technical terms). Hence, they run instantaneously and are upgraded directly from the website server. These include applications used for chatting, presentation, word processing, designing & image processing, etc. Though many of them are offered freely to the end users, there are some which are offered as free to use trials whereas the premium version is to be purchased for enhanced functionality.
To build your own web applications, you need to have a thorough knowledge of the various developer technologies, come of which include Javascript (which dominated the Internet for about a decade & a half), PHP (which was primarily used merely for developing website form mailer scripts, FLASH, a comparatively newer player which has exceeded beyond your wildest imagination. Many webhosting services include FLASH snippets in their library, though many can be individually written in FLASH Action script in its developer’s kit – FLASH MX.