Application Servers for E-Business

Chapter 1

Introduction

To say that the World Wide Web has changed the face of computing is a vast understatement. In the first year or so of its existence, the Web was simply an interesting enhancement to the user interface of the Internet. Prior to the Web, the Internet was a network used heavily by government and educational institutions. The user interface of the Internet was character-based and cryptic, and therefore most users of the Internet were relatively sophisticated computer and network users. The Web offered a simple user interface and an easy way of interconnecting documents of related information. The Web technologies eventually evolved to support sophisticated interaction with users, which laid the groundwork for a new paradigm ...