JavaScript is the most popular and widely used client-side scripting language. Client-side scripting refers to scripts that run within your web browser. JavaScript is designed to add interactivity and dynamic effects to the web pages by manipulating the content returned from a web server.

JavaScript was originally developed as LiveScript by Netscape in the mid 1990s. It was later renamed to JavaScript in 1995, and became an ECMA standard in 1997. Now JavaScript is the standard client-side scripting language for web-based applications, and it is supported by virtually all web browsers available today, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, etc.

JavaScript is an object-oriented language, and it also has some similarities in syntax to Java programming language. But, JavaScript is not related to Java in any way.

JavaScript is officially maintained by ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) as ECMAScript. ECMAScript 6 (or ES6) is the latest major version of the ECMAScript standard.