Glossary

Ajax Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (AJAX) is a Web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire Web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is meant to increase the Web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.

GUI A Graphical User Interface (or GUI, sometimes pronounced "gooey") is a method of interacting with a computer through a metaphor of direct manipulation of graphical images and widgets in addition to text.

RIA Rich Internet Applications (or RIA) are web applications that have the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications. RIA's typically transfer the processing necessary for the user interface to the web client but keep the bulk of the data (i.e maintaining the state of the program, the data etc) back on the application server.

Web App In software engineering, a web application — sometimes called a webapp and much less frequently a weblication — is an application that is accessed with a web browser over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. Web applications are popular due to the ubiquity of the browser as a client, sometimes called a thin client. The ability to update and maintain web applications without distributing and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers is a key reason for their popularity.

(Source: Wikipedia)