Not so long ago, desktop applications prevailed. They ranged from word processors, through e-mail clients, photo editing tools and instant messaging, to games. Internet connections were slow and expensive. Those applications had a very long cycle of development and were, more often than not, very platform-dependent.

With the advance in the Internet speed and the maturing of technologies such as HTML5 and Ajax, applications that reigned supreme on the desktop started to make way for the "cloud".

The applications previously mentioned now live on the Internet. Users tend to see new features added at a much faster pace than before, and are no longer tied to a specific platform or device. The browser has become the window in which Web Applications and media are accessed. By accessing applications through the web browser, deployment is simplified for the end user in comparison to desktop technologies, as updates for web applications are transparent.

Web applications are ubiquitous, and many big companies invest heavily in them, either by selling software and equipment that makes web applications possible, like Oracle and IBM, or by employing different technologies and creating new applications, like Facebook and Google.