Web Application Development
A web application is a software application that users access through a web browser over a network such as the Internet[^c1]. Unlike traditional websites that primarily present information, web applications are interactive and let users perform a wide range of tasks[^c2]. Common examples include email services, social networking sites, online banking, e-commerce platforms, and online productivity tools such as Google Docs[^c3].
Web applications are built on a client-server model and communicate over HTTP. Development divides into the front end, which runs in the browser, and the back end, where frameworks run on a server and determine how an application handles data, business logic, and security[^c4]. By the mid-2020s the major JavaScript frameworks had converged around fine-grained reactivity, server-first rendering, compiler-driven optimizations (with TypeScript as the baseline), and AI-assisted workflows[^c5].
The web has passed through distinct eras. During Web 1.0, from roughly 1991 to 2004, most sites were static and the majority of users were content consumers rather than producers[^c6]; Web 2.0 then centred on user-created content published across forums, social media, blogs, and wikis[^c7]. A further phase, Web 3.0 or Web3, describes a decentralized version of the internet[^c11] in which individuals are to hold ownership of their digital assets[^c13]; unlike the earlier eras, the term carries no settled definition[^c12]. The underlying protocol has evolved too: HTTP/3 runs over the QUIC transport instead of TCP, handling packet loss at the stream level rather than blocking the whole connection[^c8][^c9], and by 2026 it was supported by the browsers used by 92.83% of global users[^c10]. Security and performance — measured by frameworks such as the OWASP Top Ten and the Core Web Vitals — are defining concerns of the field.