RIA *
Rich Internet applications (RIAs) are web applications that have most of the characteristics of desktop applications, typically delivered by way of standards based web browser plug-ins or independently via sandboxes or virtual machines.[1] Examples of RIA frameworks include Curl, GWT, Adobe Flash/Adobe Flex/AIR, Java/JavaFX,[2], Mozilla’s XUL and Microsoft Silverlight.[3]
The term was introduced in March 2002 by vendors like Macromedia who were addressing limitations at the time in the “richness of the application interfaces, media and content, and the overall sophistication of the solutions” by introducing proprietary extensions.[4]
As web standards (such as HTML 5) have developed and web browsers‘ compliance has improved there is still need for such extensions, when companies want to bring a truly high-end, seamless experience to their users. Javascript compilers with their associated desktop-like widget sets reduce the need for browser extensions even further. HTML 5 delivers a pseudo-application platform.
It is still not possible to build RIA-like Web applications that run in all modern browsers without the need of special run-times or plug-ins. This means that if one could run a modern Ajax-based Web application outside of a web browser (e.g. using Mozilla Prism or Fluid) it would essentially be an RIA,[1] though there is some contention as to whether this is actually the case.[5]