How Microsoft Silverlight Benefits Your Website
Incorporating rich web-based applications is a great way to enhance your blog or e-commerce site. However, getting the most out of such applications isn’t as always as simple as it should be. One way to easily deliver a rich multimedia experience is with an amazing new technology developed by Microsoft – Silverlight.
What is Silverlight?
Silverlight is a cross-platform, cross-browser implementation of Microsoft’s NET Framework. The system is designed to build rich interactive applications and deliver the next-generation of multimedia experiences. As a cross-platform technology, Silverlight supports popular operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS X as well as browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari. Because it is essentially in the form of a small plugin, Silverlight is fairly easy and quick to install.
Silverlight leverages the best of various technologies and allows a webmaster to use the development tools and programming languages they desire. For example, it integrates seamlessly with existing code such as PHP, JavaScript and even more advanced coding such as AJAX. If your website thrives off multimedia streaming, upgrading to Silverlight would be a good option.
Silverlight Features
Video in the Highest of Quality: With Silverlight, your visitors will enjoy some of the best video quality they have ever seen, even on a graphic heavy website. Microsoft designed Silverlight with the same codec utilized in BlueRay and HD DVDs to ensure an unrivaled media streaming experience.
Allows Developers and Designers to Work Seamlessly: Those who are familiar with other Microsoft development tools should be able to create Silverlight applications fairly easy. This level of familiarity allows them to focus on the core of application development while graphic designers tend to all the visuals.
Affordable: Though Microsoft technologies are generally more expensive than other companies, Silverlight offers the most affordable way to stream media over the internet. Right now, Silverlight is available under the Microsoft Public License, meaning all you need is IIS in a server application such as Windows Server or Mac OS X.
Supports Various Languages: The best thing about Silverlight is that it will support the existing scripting languages used to code your website. Boasting a feature called Dynamic Language Runtime, it allows you to code applications in Ruby, Python or ASP all while leveraging the powerful Net Framework.
Powerful Development Platform: Silverlight offers many of the same features as Microsoft’s award-winning Visual Studio product. Visual Studio gets better with each addition and Silverlight is likely to do the same.
Copy Protection: With Silverlight, you can allow viewers to download content from your site or simply stream content in real-time. Unlike video sharing communities where anyone can take your content and post it anywhere, Silverlight lets you place restrictions.
Incredibly Fast: Silverlight works extremely fast, especially on sites coded with AJAX. Google Maps is a prime of example of AJAX in action and what Silverlight can do for your site.
As we touched on above, you need a web host equipped with the proper server software and components to enjoy Silverlight. LunarPages is one company that offers a complete multimedia package with support for Microsoft Silverlight and other streaming technologies as well. Once installed, you will find that Silverlight offers benefits to you and your visitors
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You seriously have to be JOKING!
I love Silverlight, and would love to use it on a website, but it would be suicide! SL has a 10% marketshare! What business person would use a product that 90% of people can’t use?
Are you living in the real world?
Silverlight for the Intranet, NOT on the internet any time soon.
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