When most people think of web development, the first thing that comes into mind is making websites: the content, the structure, and the design. Lately however, this has become only a very small part of web development. With the use of different devices, user’s are consuming content and information from many sources - in various ways. Websites just aren’t enough anymore for the web. The web has gone from simply presenting static information to systems providing up-to-date, meaningful information. There is now immersive interactivity wherever you are, on whatever device you use.
In this three part series, I will go through a brief overview of just a few of the ways we utilize modern web development to do more than just make a website.
Modern Web Dev Series Part 2: Web-Based Applications
The area of web-based applications is where we probably have seen the most movement in the last few years in terms of development and capability. These applications often utilize the latest technologies that are exposed by web browsers to allow a level of interactivity that was not possible before. We can now develop applications that allow you to see the latest activity of your friends or your latest emails without needing to refresh the web page. We can now have live chats that incorporate images and videos with users on computers, tablets, or phones. We can now even run 3D games through the web-browser that utilizes many of the capabilities of the client computers, not just what the browser usually uses. A lot of this is due to the monumental rise in browser performance for client-side web technologies. We no longer have to rely on powerful servers to do all the heavy lifting, and they can now focus on presenting data quickly.
Part 3 of Modern Web Dev Series: Web-Based Devices is now live. In case you missed Part 1: Web Services, click here.
Rahul is a Front-End Developer at DOOR3. How do you think web-based applications fit into modern web development?
