An application that exists in a distributed environment, such as the Internet. A Web service accepts a request, performs its function based on the request, and returns a response. The request and the response can be part of the same operation, or they can occur separately, in which case the consumer does not need to wait for a response. Both the request and the response usually take the form of XML, a portable data-interchange format, and are delivered over a wire protocol, such as HTTP.

Software that provides services to access the Internet, an intranet, or an extranet. A Web server hosts Web sites, provides support for HTTP and other protocols, and executes server-side programs (such as CGI scripts or servlets) that perform certain functions. In the J2EE architecture, a Web server provides services to a Web container. For example, a Web container typically relies on a Web server to provide HTTP message handling. The J2EE architecture assumes that a Web container is hosted by a Web server from the same vendor, so it does not specify the contract between these two entities. A Web server can host one or more Web containers.

XML documents. It differs from HTML, the markup language most often used to present information on the Internet. HTML has fixed tags that deal mainly with style or presentation. An XML document must undergo a transformation into a language with style tags under the control of a style sheet before it can be presented by a browser or other presentation mechanism. Two types of style sheets used with XML are CSS and XSL. Typically, XML is transformed into HTML for presentation. Although tags can be defined as needed in the generation of an XML document, a document type definition (DTD) can be used to define the elements allowed in a particular type of document. A document can be compared by using the rules in the DTD to determine its validity and to locate particular elements in the document. A Web services application's J2EE deployment descriptors are expressed in XML with schemas defining allowed elements. Programs for processing XML documents use SAX or DOM APIs.

SOAP is an XML-based messaging framework specifically designed for exchanging formatted data across the Internet, for example using request and reply messages or sending entire documents. SOAP is simple, easy to use, and completely neutral with respect to operating system, programming language, or distributed computing platform. The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is a particular form of an XML Schema

Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides a single integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet,
and Internet applications across the enterprise.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007 have identical feature functionality. While the feature functionality is similar, the usage
rights are different.
If you are creating an Internet, or Extranet, facing website, it is recommended that you use
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites which does not require the purchase
client access licenses. Websites hosted using an "Internet sites" edition can only be used for
Internet facing websites and all content, information, and applications must be accessible to nonemployees.