AJAX (Also Known As Ajax)One of the newer technologies out there that took part in the Web 2.0 craze is AJAX. AJAX, in the context of the online world, has absolutely nothing to do with the abrasive cleanser of the same name. It's an acronym that stands for [A]synchronous [J]avaScript [A]nd [X]ml. So what does that mean? Good question. It boils down to a set of technologies that allow web developers to create richer user experiences.
To best explain this, let's look at how most web pages used to get to someone's web browser.
- Joe opens his web browser on his home computer.
- Joe’s browser makes a request over the Internet to a web server to get everything that’s needed to render that home page on Joe’s computer.
- Joe enters some text into a search box and clicks the search button.
- Joe’s browser sends that information to that same web server over the internet and gets ALL the stuff to make the page AGAIN, plus his search results.
This user experience is best described as “every time you do something on a web page, the whole page refreshes.” This had been the expected behavior of the “web experience” for a while.
Some web developers were not happy with this experience. Using tools that were already available to them, they figured out a way to send data back and forth between the web browser and the web server so the whole page did not have to refresh. Some of the early applications of this were Google Maps & Gmail. They allowed the user to interact without having to deal with the annoying web page refresh. This created a new standard for website interaction. It gave birth to websites that rival desktop applications in their ease of use, functionality, and all around user experience. Currently, there are tools for just about every programming language and web hosting platform that support AJAX, making it easier than ever to create an engaging user experience for any website.
Hopefully this series will help bridge the marketing/techie gap, and will lead to more productive discussions when it comes to online marketing. Stay tuned, as new episodes are on the way to help clear the smoke (and mirrors) of online marketing buzz words.
Check out the popular Episode 1 of Buzz Words Demystified — Web 2.0
