Launched by the GIS corporation Esri in 2000, ArcGIS is the leading commercially-available GIS desktop application. It is widely used in industrial settings, including urban planning and geosciences; it has also gained traction as a tool for quantitative social science. It is a powerful engine for geospatial data analysis and geoprocessing, and accommodates a virtually infinite amount of visual customization. For these reasons, it has been adopted as a spatial analysis tool by digital humanists, especially those whose research contains a heavy quantitative component.
ArcGIS operates on two platforms: ArcGIS Desktop, which offers a high level of customizability and geoprocessing capabilities; and ArcGIS Online, which displays map data on the web. ArcGIS Online maps can be embedded, and contain a few interactive features, such as tooltip information boxes and layer visibility manipulation.