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The term Web services describes a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available and UDDI is used for listing what services are available. Used primarily as a means for businesses to communicate with each other and with clients, Web services allow organizations to communicate data without intimate knowledge of each other's IT systems behind the firewall.
Unlike traditional client/server models, such as a Web server/Web page system, Web services do not provide the user with a GUI. Web services instead share business logic, data and processes through a programmatic interface across a network. The applications interface, not the users. Developers can then add the Web service to a GUI (such as a Web page or an executable program) to offer specific functionality to users.
Web services allow different applications from different sources to communicate with each other without time-consuming custom coding, and because all communication is in XML, Web services are not tied to any one operating system or programming language. For example, Java can talk with Perl, Windows applications can talk with UNIX applications.
Web services do not require the use of browsers or HTML.
Web services are sometimes called application services.
Also see Understanding "Web
Services" in the "Did
You Know...?" section of Webopedia.
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 ASP development site 
ASp development site for winners!
Developing Real World Web Services-based Applications
This three-part series of articles explores the world of Web Services,
and the challenges in developing Web Services-based applications for the
real world.
A Web Services Primer
The Web services movement is about the fact that the advantages of the Web as a platform apply not only to information but to services.
Creating a .NET Web Service
Creating a .NET Web Service using C# and a close look at UDDI.
WebServices.org
News and information on the latest Web services happenings, including white papers and event information.
What Web Services Are NOT
Understanding what Web services are by understanding what they are NOT.
Calling a Web Service Asynchronously
Web services are the talk of the Net; however, there is little information
on Web Services with Visual C++. Discover how to call a Web service
asynchronously using Visual C++ .NET.
The Second Coming of ASPs?
When ASPs first came on the scene in the late 1990s, they were billed as the future of software. Has that future arrived?
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