[thelist] Web services - what's the difference?

[Peter-Paul Koch]

Hi,

I'm having some trouble understanding the concept of web services.

As far as I understand, web services are server side application that Take
Care Of Something, like credit card processing, online payments or searching
through a huge database. You create a web service and it works.

Very nice to have, of course, but where is this different from the old way
of processing credit cards, paying online and searching through huge
databases? We created some server side programs in the language of our
choice and it worked.

So currently I'm thinking that the term 'web services' is one more in the
long string of meaningless market-isms that engulfs the Web. The idea behind
web services is solid, of course, but there isn't much difference with the
old situation.

Or am I wrong?

Thanks for any feedback,

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ppk, freelance web developer
Interaction, copywriting, JavaScript, integration
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ppk/
Column "Keep it Simple": http://www.digital-web.com/columns/keepitsimple/
What shall we do with the W3C DOM?:
http://www.evolt.org/article/What_shall_we_do_with_the_W3C_DOM/4090/47311/index.html
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