Lots of people would say a new software technology called Web services really caught techdom's attention with a 1999 press conference held in downtown San Francisco by software giant Microsoft. Chairman Bill Gates introduced to the world a concept he called BizTalk, which was formalized five years ago under the name .Net. The new technology, which would eventually be followed by a suite of server software for businesses, was Microsoft's entrée into the growing business of using the Internet to connect different types of software together, regardless of who wrote the programs.
Although it didn't seem like much at the time, Microsoft was on the edge of a huge shift. With every big tech company from it and Sun Microsystems to IBM and Oracle and a whole bunch of smaller companies pushing Web services, there's no question that they -- or it, as the case may be -- represent the next big technology change in computing.
But there's one problem: Few people seem to actually agree on what a Web service is. So to help demystify this huge but nebulous new movement here are some common questions and answers about Web services.
