The Feel Of The Web

Have you noticed how the feel of the web is changing?

Perhaps you use LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com or Jobster – http://www.jobster.com and very probably you have had a look at Google maps – http://maps.google.com/

If so you cannot but have noticed that these sites and others have a different look and feel. Its not about but about the way that they seem easier and faster to use.

So many sites are slow and tedious giving you the feeling thatyou have plenty of time to get a coffee or even go to lunch. It’s the horrible hourglass. You click a link and the hourglass appears as the site contacts the server and the server thinks about what it’s going to send back to you.

There is a reason for the new sites being faster and nicer to use. Its called AJAX.

Not the cleaner invented in 1947 nor the mythical Greek hero but a web development technique.

AJAX is not new technology but a combination of existing mature technologies. Its an abbreviation for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML and a web development technique to make web pages feel more responsive. It does this by exchanging small amounts ofdata with the...