Java, developed under the Sun Microsystems brand, is a full-fledged object-oriented programming language that must be compiled in order to run. It can be used to create standalone applications and a special type of mini application, called an applet. Applets are downloaded as separate files to your browser alongside an HTML document, and provide an infinite variety of added functionality to the Web site you are visiting. The displayed results of applets can appear to be embedded in an HTML page (e.g., the scrolling banner message that is so common on Java-enhanced sites), but the Java code arrives as a separate file.
main difference between the two languages is that
interaction to previously static web pages - and thus acts like an
extension to HTML.
Java, meanwhile, is a stand alone language which can be used on web sites - but ultimately is a much broader programming language with more in common to C++ than HTML.