# Browser-based computing

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**Browser-based computing** is the use of the [web browsers](/source/Web_browsers) to perform computing tasks. Opportunities for computing on the Web have been noted as far back as 1997.[1] Computing over the web was described in 2000.[2] Applications include [distributed computing](/source/Distributed_computing) for [web workers](/source/Web_worker) as illustrated by James (formerly CrowdProcess) and [HASH](/source/HASH), the use of the browser's stack in QMachine,[3] the embedding of web applications as semantic [hypermedia](/source/Hypermedia) components[4] and the Signaling Server in [Peer-to-peer](/source/Peer-to-peer) networks set via [WebRTC](/source/WebRTC).[5] Browser-based computing complements [cloud computing](/source/Cloud_Computing), because they reduce server-side computational load, often using cloud-hosted, [RESTful](/source/RESTful) [web services](/source/Web_services).

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Furmanski W (1997). "Petaops and Exaops: Super-computing on the Web". *IEEE Internet Computing*. **1** (2): 38–46. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1109/4236.601097](https://doi.org/10.1109%2F4236.601097).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Fox G (2001). ["Introduction to Web computing"](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3422394). *Computing in Science & Engineering*. **3** (2): 52–53. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1109/mcise.2001.909002](https://doi.org/10.1109%2Fmcise.2001.909002).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Wilkinson SR, Almeida JS (2014). ["QMachine: commodity supercomputing in web browsers"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4063228). *BMC Bioinformatics*. **15**: 176. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1186/1471-2105-15-176](https://doi.org/10.1186%2F1471-2105-15-176). [PMC](/source/PMC_(identifier)) [4063228](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4063228). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [24913605](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24913605).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Verborgh R (2014). ["Serendipitous web applications through semantic hypermedia"](http://ruben.verborgh.org/phd/ruben-verborgh-phd.pdf) (PDF). *Sort*. **100**.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["WebRTC"](http://www.webrtc.org). *WebRTC.org*.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Browser-based computing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser-based_computing) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser-based_computing?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.