WEB APPLICATION
Definition:
A web application is an app like any other, with the
advantage that it’s stored on the Internet and can be
executed on any browser.
In the previous example, the company would only have to
install the application once and then any employee could
work with the application soundly.
This is really useful for large companies with different
branches, as well as for students, entrepreneurs and plenty
of users who need certain programs but would rather avoid
filling their computers with applications.
Web applications have many advantages.
Let’s see now what the most important ones
are:
Quick and easy maintenance. Large companies only have to
solve a given issue once, not address it on a one-by-one basis
on every single computer.
There are no compatibility issues. All operating systems
carry a built-in browser, so a web app can run on all desktop,
smartphone, and tablet operating systems regardless of the
operating system in particular.
They don’t take up space on the hard disk. This is very
important now, especially as Ultra books are becoming
increasingly fashionable. Ultra books are computers that are
very powerful and very thin but have a small internal storage
capacity. Therefore, tools stored on the Internet can be
decisive for saving memory.
Having an Internet connection is essential, as many of these
applications require an Internet connection to be able to
access them. Otherwise, they are perfect and many could
seamlessly replace desktop applications. There are different
ways to develop web applications, but let’s first see some
examples of them:
Top examples of web app development
Google Docs
Google’s office suite is one of the best web applications in
the world. Google Docs allows us to create documents, save
them on our computer or on our Google Drive account, save
them in PDF format, print them, and share them with our
colleagues. And most importantly: it enables us to work on
the same document with our colleagues.
Another upside to Google Docs is that we can work with it
without an Internet connection. Later on, when our device
gets connected to the Internet again, everything we have
done will be saved automatically in Google Drive without
having to do anything ourselves.
Pixlr.com
Pixlr is one of the best web applications for photo editing.
This app is inspired by the well-known photo editing program
Adobe Photoshop, as the program’s design and its structure
let us know right away. This application will, therefore, be
very familiar among those of us who are Adobe Photoshop
users.
However, similarities go beyond its design, as this web
application also works with the layers system and we can
work on our compositions just as we would in Photoshop.
And despite not being able to expect great things from this
app, it’s a perfectly suitable and sound tool to use for a
timely need.
Codepen.io
This is the perfect tool for those starting out in the web app
development industry. It’s basically a small HTML code
development environment in our browser. Which means it’s
a really useful tool to test our HTML, CSS and JavaScript
codes in real time.
In addition to being able to test and edit an HTML document
we’ve just created, we can also store it in the cloud and share
it with the Codepen community. We can surely find code that
will suit our future websites if we go through the
community’s resources.
Evernote and Trello
It’s quite common to come across someone who still uses
classic post-its and sticks them on his fridge at home or on his
desktop at the office. Well, now post-its have been updated
and are on the Internet — like is happening to most things
around us.
This is what web tools Evernote and Trello have done. They
are two different web applications that enable us to organize
ourselves in a way that’s very similar to when we used classic
post-its. And now they incorporate many more features that
will surely make you want to switch to these digital
applications.
Evernote and Trello aim at the same thing: to prevent you
from forgetting something that’s important to you. Both
applications work with virtual cards containing different
tasks that you will introduce. The apps will be responsible for
reminding you something that you have to do or something
that you should do tomorrow.
It must be said that Evernote is a bit more focused on a
personal use while Trello has become an indispensable web
tool for several companies due to the ease in sharing tasks
and communicating with the rest of the team that it offers.
Netflix
Last but not least, we’ll now talk about the most important
streaming video platform presently operating. For those who
are unfamiliar with streaming video platforms, let’s say that
they are like a video shop on the Internet. On these
platforms, we can choose what we want to see, when to see
it, if we want to pause it and see it later…
Netflix allows its users to watch their favorite series and
movies whenever they want, with no limitation as to time or
schedules in which to enjoy these services. On top of that, it
doesn’t matter where the user is when he wants to see some
of Netflix’s contents since it’s a cross-platform service,
compatible with all operating systems.
The way it works is very simple. We only have to access their
app or their website and enter our user credentials. Once we
have logged ourselves in, we only have to search the title of
the movie or the series that we want to see and then just get
comfortable and enjoy.
As you can see, there are plenty of examples of web app
development yielding products that are really useful for
many users in their everyday lives. Hence, not all revolves
around mobile phone apps: you can also develop great
Internet applications.
