A function based, object oriented, interpreted scripting language for web pages that typically runs on internet browsers. It permits web sites to run more interactively and allows a lot of processing to be performed by the local computer running the browser without requiring connection bandwidth, or server resources.

Some of the tasks this language is typically used for on web pages include verifying form fields before submitting them over the internet, doing clever animations and mouse-over effects, and performing data display liaison functions between dynamic server side applications and static pages (i.e. news headliners, etc.).

JavaScript was developed and named by Netscape in 1996 for use in the 2.0 version of their browser. It has since been endorsed as an official, open standard named ECMAScript, by the ECMA.

Though it is most commonly used as a browser side scripting language (i.e. run on the browser of local machines viewing the web page), JavaScript has also been defined for use as a server side scripting language. In this capacity it works like other server side scripting languages like Perl, Visual Basic, and PHP.

Note: JavaScript is not Java. The similarity in name (and structure) is purely coincidental.