Jesse James Garrett (the early web luminary who coined the term "ajax") was already talking about the dual purposes of the web in the year 2000. He called them

Jesse James Garrett (the early web luminary who coined the term "ajax") was already talking about the dual purposes of the web in the year 2000. He called them "Web as software interface" and "Web as hypertext system". In The Elements of User Experience (2000) he writes: "The Web was originally conceived as a hypertextual information space; but the development of increasingly sophisticated front- and back-end technologies has fostered its use as a remote software interface." [0] [0] http://www.jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf http://www.jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf