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May 8, 2006 :: Volume 2, Issue 4
Next Issue: May 2007

Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications

Posted by TimSlavin at February 25, 2005

"Desktop applications have a richness and responsiveness that has seemed out of reach on the Web. The same simplicity that enabled the Web's rapid proliferation also creates a gap between the experiences we can provide and the experiences users can get from a desktop application.

That gap is closing. Take a look at Google Suggest. Watch the way the suggested terms update as you type, almost instantly. Now look at Google Maps. Zoom in. Use your cursor to grab the map and scroll around a bit. Again, everything happens almost instantly, with no waiting for pages to reload.

Google Suggest and Google Maps are two examples of a new approach to web applications that we at Adaptive Path have been calling Ajax. The name is shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript + XML, and it represents a fundamental shift in what's possible on the Web."

This is an excellent essay from Adaptive Path that documents a very powerful trend in web programming. The article is of interest not only to programmers but also to business people, designers, and anyone who wants to understand how web functionality is evolving.

Not to spoil the party, but this capability was first promised circa 1997 or so. XML was to provide the ability to send visitors both a web page and a small database so they could manipulate the page without repeated calls—and time delays—to the web server. Circa 2005 this has become reality. And it has a name.
URLs:

http://adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php

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