The electronic delivery of information to users on demand through ubiquitous devices heralds an age when software is subordinate to the services it enables. The concept of software is evolving quite rapidly in the world of e-business. Additionally, as software is reduced in importance, access to information, processes or any computing resource has become more prominent. E-services are simply services that are made accessible over the Internet in a ubiquitous fashion. Examples of e-services today are abundant.
Web sites are no longer self-contained entities.
This trend will continue as Web sites continue to be made up of more and more services. This will require business models that leverage delivery of the service as the primary motivation for consumers to adopt devices and to associate with specific companies. Discovery is the mechanism by which services make themselves known and are discovered. Competing technologies include Universal Plug and Play from Microsoft and Jini from Sun. Description is the way in which specifications are made for information passed into and out of the service.