As the Internet grew into a major player on the global economic front, so did the number of investors who were interested in its development. So, you may wonder, how does the Internet continue to play a major role in communications, commerce, media and news? Two words: Web Applications. Think of them as any other piece of software, but the user doesn't have to install anything and they are accessible to anyone of your choosing.  

 

Web applications are business strategies and policies implemented on the web through the integration of user, business and data services. These tools are where the future lies. The largest most and profitable sites on the web are web applications. Examples of these goliaths are Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Craigslist. Go ahead and "google" the "top ten websites visited in 2011",  you will find each of these on that illustrious list.
There are many entities that require applications for the web and you maybe one of them. Business-to-business interactions is another increasingly popular demand being met by web applications. Many companies in the world today demand to do business with each other over secure and private networks. Whether you are needing an open and secure line of communication with your customers, other businesses or even your own infrastructure and logistics, web applications tackle a wide verity if solutions.
From the simple process of transferring funds into a bank account, deploying a large scale web services network that updates pricing information globally or a fully customized ecommerce website, the adoption of a web applications infrastructure is vital for many businesses, small and large.

More detail:

The web application model, like many software development models, is constructed upon 3 tiers: User Services, Business Services and Data Services. This model breaks an application into a network of consumers and suppliers of services. The "User Service" tier creates a visual gateway for the consumer to interact with the application. The "User Services" then grab business logic and procedures from the "Business Services".
The final tier is the "Data Service" layer. "Data Services" store, retrieve and update information at a high level. Databases, file systems, and writeable media are all examples of Data storage and retrieval devices. For web applications, however, databases are most practical. Databases allow you to store, retrieve, add to, and update categorical information in a systematic and organized fashion.