Java and JavaScript don’t have a lot in common, apart from the word Java. They are different languages, each with strengths and weaknesses. Netscape created JavaScript in 1996. Sun Microsystems created Java in 1991, with the first version released in 1995. Netscape then added Java to the name JavaScript as a marketing ploy to piggyback on the success of the Java language. JavaScript is primarily used in a web browser to make web pages more interactive (web-based applications) whereas Java is used to create standalone applications to run on single computers and servers. Both languages share a similar syntax based on C, but JavaScript is a lightweight language and Java is an object-oriented language with its own virtual machine.