When XMPP was first developed, the standard way to use software was to install an application on your home computer and connect to the Internet over a 56k modem. Browsers were devices for visiting simple text and image documents linked together by hyperlinks. Some people still refer to it as an information superhighway.

For this reason, while XMPP has been used in web applications in various ways, it has somewhat been overlooked. Web developers in general have had bad experiences with XML or see it as unnecessarily verbose (especially next to JSON).

With the rise of the real time web, the proliferation of a new wave of chat, the Internet of Things (IoT), and WebRTC applications (all discussed in Chapter 10, Real-world deployment and XMPP Extensions), we see XMPP becoming increasingly more relevant and popular. As a proven system, it has solved the problems these applications face in terms of scalability and security it has well as also provided a standards...