The inside of the server was a much more ordered place once the programmers implemented AJAX. The updates from hundreds of users flowed smoothly in as they were typing, not just arriving in huge batches whenever they hit save.
Simply put, AJAX means updating part of a page without refreshing the page. When you save a document in Google Docs, and it quietly saves while you are typing away happily, that’s AJAX (also autosaving). When you are using Google Maps, and you scroll the map across, and you see more of the map emerging off the side of the screen, that’s AJAX. When Twitter keeps the list of recent tweets scrolling up the page, that’s AJAX.
AJAX is of great use to you in planning your application. Whether you want your forms to autosave, your users to be able to dynamically filter data or even just want your users to be able to submit a comment on the page they’ve been viewing without leaving it, you want to be using it. Luckily for you, it shouldn’t be something you have to ask for. It’s a standard component in web application development, and we use it in every application to make them as usable as possible.
Did you know?
The term AJAX stands for “Asynchronous Javascript And XML”...and is still in use today, despite modern uses of AJAX not necessarily being asynchronous or using XML!
