What does Database Driven Really Mean?
What does database driven really mean and how does it enhance a website or web application (besides allowing it to exist).
A database at it's simplest is a structured record of information. It is a place to store and retrieve data from about very specific topics. Your email contact list is a database, your bank account is a database and your appointment calendar is a database. Any type of information can be stored in a properly designed database. Web applications use databases for such things as online product catalogs, registered user account systems and blog posts and comments.
Databases enable eCommerce, Content Management Systems, Social Networking, Online Advertising and many of the services you will find online. Websites which do not rely upon a database are very rare on the modern internet.
Databases enable Web 2.0 to exist. Without a means to store and retrieve, by request, end user created content - Web 2.0 would never be possible.
Databases are the most valuable asset of your web site. It is the life blood of your online business, organization or community. Databases are often also where we turn when we need to find out who our customers are and what they respond to... aka Data mining. There are a wide variety of reporting tools and database marketing applications which can monetize your data, either through helping you to sell advertising spots or simply by improving your conversion rates by targeting your own advertising more closely with your known demographic. By collecting data about your users, they become marketing research of the highest quality - first person accounts of how the public sees your products, services or other offerings. Of course your privacy policy should limit what you can do with this information - but in the aggregate as input to a statistical model, this data is priceless.