JAVA was created, believe it or not, to run on consumer appliances such as televisions and toasters. Therefore it had to be small and easily portable across many pieces of hardware. These programming goals coincided almost perfectly with the desire of Web designers to be able to produce truly interactive, multimedia presentations on the World Wide Web. Therefore, JAVA was adopted as the multimedia language of the Web.

What's the advantage to JAVA? In an environment where the company with the widest distribution can generate the greatest market share, JAVA fits in perfectly. It is designed to be executable cross-platform; in other words, just like Web pages, JAVA applications (Or 'Applets') can be run whether your customers are using a Macintosh system, IBM, Sparc station, or whatever system you use.

What can be done with JAVA? Nearly anything a small program can do, JAVA applications can do. Interactive menus, real-time games, database applications -- the possibilities are limited only by the programmer's imagination. With WebSpan Design Group, that's nearly limitless.