The Tech PC Webopedia defines "streaming" as follows:Streaming
A technique for transferring data such that it can be processed as a steady
and continuous stream. Streaming technologies are becoming increasingly
important with the growth of the Internet because most users do not have fast
enough access to download large multimedia files quickly. With streaming, the
client browser or plug-in can start displaying the data before the entire file has
been transmitted.For streaming to work, the client side receiving the data must be able to
collect the data and send it as a steady stream to the application that is
processing the data and converting it to sound or pictures. This means that if
the streaming client receives the data more quickly than required, it needs to
save the excess data in a buffer. If the data doesn't come quickly enough,
however, the presentation of the data will not be smooth.