By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
I usually resist the temptation to write on the topic of programming as the subject matter of writing code doesn’t usually speak directly to my audience. However every now and then an advancement progresses far enough that its impact merits coverage. Besides, I’m a closet geek and I just need a fix every now and then, but have no fear as I promise to keep this posting brief.
The advancement I want to make you aware of is called AJAX (not what you clean your kitchen sink with) which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript Technology and XML. A little background As amazing as the Internet is, web applications have always played second fiddle when compared to desktop applications in terms of their speed and efficiency. Put simply desktop applications are smooth, seamless and fast while web applications have historically been clunky and slow.
The difference in performance has been that web applications (until AJAX) have had to rely on plug-ins and a variety of browser-specific tools to function. This dependency caused web pages to have to load or refresh to change content. With the use of AJAX web applications no longer require plug-ins and browser-specific features to load content. By using AJAX, web applications are rapidly closing the performance and usability gap with desktop applications by becoming more dynamic and interactive.
While the elements that come together to make up AJAX have been around for quite sometime it has only been since 2005 that mainstream web browsers have evolved to the point of allowing AJAX to become a current application development phenomenon. The early days of AJAX development were fraught with construct faults that required numerous workarounds, but if you think AJAX is a fad, think again A representative sampling of websites currently using AJAX to improve the customer experience include AIM, MSN, Google, Apple and Yahoo.
You are now armed with just enough information to be dangerous (also enough to impress the IT guys) but at least as you notice the usability and performance of web applications improving you’ll know why. I promise I won’t do this again for a while.
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