JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. It was the originating dialect of the ECMAScript standard. It is a dynamic, weakly typed, prototype-based language with first-class functions. JavaScript was influenced by many languages and was designed to have a similar look to Java.^[1] The language is best known for its use in websites (as client-side JavaScript), but is also used to enable scripting access to objects embedded in other applications (for example Microsoft Gadgets in Windows Vista Sidebar).

Despite the name, JavaScript is essentially unrelated to the Java programming language, though both have the common C syntax, and JavaScript copies many Java names and naming conventions. The language was renamed from LiveScript in a co-marketing deal between Netscape and Sun in exchange for Netscape bundling Sun's Java runtime with their browser, which was dominant at the time. The key design principles within JavaScript are inherited from the Self programming language.

"JavaScript" is a trademark of Sun Microsystems. It was used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape Communications and current entities such as the Mozilla Foundation.^[2]

JavaScript is used in millions of Web pages to improve the design, validate forms, detect browsers, create cookies, and much more.

JavaScript is the most popular scripting language on the internet, and works in all major browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, and Opera.

Some uses of JavaScript include:

JavaScript is a major part of AJAX, a technology combining server-side and client-side dynamic scripting to achieve impressive results at a speed that is both impressive and highly advantageous for both you and your website users.