`== Patent threathens RIA? ==  I just learned today that there is a US patent granted today that (might?) threaten RIA:  See: U.S. Grants Patent For Broad Range Of Internet Rich Applications  See also: United States Patent 7,000,180  Balthaser February 14, 2006  In short:  ``The patentissued on Valentine's Daycovers all rich-media technology implementations, including Flash, Flex, Java, Ajax, and XAML, when the rich-media application is accessed on any device over the Internet, including desktops, mobile devices, set-top boxes, and video game consoles.``  ``It's kind of unbelievable that (the patent) has such a wide ranging use because it covers so many technologies,`` says Bola Rotibi, a senior analyst at Ovum, an IT advisory firm in London. If the patent is enforced broadly, she says, ``anybody who does anything with rich applications will have to pay royalties to the company.``  -  Presumably this only applies to companies that sell in the US.    ===Java applets?=== I think Java applets are the most popular and most powerful technique to implement RIA beside JavaScript. Why is it missing?  === Promoting a product? ===  What's the policy on promoting a product on Wikipedia? I notice Backbase has put a plug for thier product in the Javascript section.    :Backbase has not, I have put it there, more than two months ago. Until now, it wasn’t objectionable. The article mentions Macromedia and Laszlo, so I do not see the harm in mentioning a Javascript-based RIA product as well. Personally, I would like to see the text return (perhaps in different form), and not be easily dismissed as an advertisement.    :If I may quote: ``Macromedia is one vendor in this area, whose Macromedia Flash technology includes Flash Communications Server, Central, Breeze and Flex, all of which are run in viewers' browsers within the Macromedia Flash Player which has a 98% penetration with current internet users.`` - talk about blatant advertising.    Full agreement.  If there's a section at the end regarding different libraries to create RIA's, perhaps it should be listed alongside its (better known) competitors.  As it stands, it's a poorly-disguised advertisement stuck in a section it doesn't belong in.  :: Does the Hummingbird link constitute linkspam?  ::: I originally put the Hummingbird link there believing that it should be mentioned as a very early pioneer of the concept and possibly still at the most leading edge. However, to avoid spam confusion problems, I removed that link. What we must identify is where is the fine line between history and spam. Microsoft, Google, Macromedia get almost universal access to the articles, while other companies do not. And many times I actually would like to know of the other players. Maybe we just need to find the right place for them.    === phrasing ===  the phrasing ``we'll have to...`` doesn't belong into a encyclopedia. unfortunately i feel unable to rewrite it into a better sentence. thanks.  * done.    ===Definition?===  It would be nice to have a definition of a ``Rich Internet Application``, and a comparison to non-rich Internet applications.  The article says  :much richer user-interface options other than the standard HTML widgets available to browser-based Web applications. ``Richer`` functionality could be ``Drag and Drop,`` using a slider to change data, calculation that happens on the client (e.g., an insurance rate calculator) and do not need to be sent back to the server, etc.  but all of these except for full drag-and-drop are easy to implement using standard Javascript.  Does a client-side mortgage amortization calculator (using only Javascript and no server interaction) count as an RIA?  How about one that does some server-side fetching for in-page updating using standard tricks?  :Using javascript is a method, see AJAX, ria is just a type of application, not a type of implementation.    How about a ticker-type application that gets updates from the server without refreshing the 