The client wanted a Web site with some sizzle, some pizzazz. The client wanted Flash. Jesse James Garrett, a partner at the hotshot Web consultancy Adaptive Path, demurred; plug-ins and players clog the user experience, he argued, they don’t enhance it. Stick to JavaScript and XML, he counseled, the standard programming and markup languages all Web browsers understand. For ’zazz, Garrett suggested dumping the old call-and-response model of interaction (click, wait, load page; click, wait, load page) and instead anticipate the user’s next move, loading data in advance. When someone makes a choice – say, adds an item to the shopping cart – instantly slide that item into the cart instead of reloading the entire page.
Garrett called his idea Ajax, short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, and followed up his demo (the client, a major insurance company, loved it) with a manifesto in February 2005: “Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications.” Posted on Adaptive Path’s Web site, the white paper laid out his under-the-hood thinking, with charts and succinct explanations. It turned out he wasn’t alone – Google was using the same principle to cook up Google Maps. That turned out to be the perfect example of the form. Spend a few years using Yahoo Maps and MapQuest, then try Google Maps. You’ll get Ajax at once. Web pages become fluid, more like desktop applications or videogames. “It’s the difference between looking at motion-picture stills,” Garrett says, “and actually watching the movie.”
– Paul Boutin
Where to See Ajax in Action
Kayak
Airline flight searches have been around forever, but Kayak uses Ajax to add each matching flight’s info to your screen the instant it’s found. No more nail-biting suspense while the site searches every airline on the planet.
Zimbra
Outlook competitors seemed pointless – ooh, it’s like Outlook except not from Microsoft! – until this Ajaxified version. Zimbra lets you answer email, schedule meetings, review documents, and update your contacts from nearly any desktop, laptop, or smartphone browser without installing more software.
Gap.com
The retailer actually took its site offline last fall to solve a “too many clicks per purchase” problem that chased online customers away. Now Ajax makes shopping the new Gap.com less like flipping through a catalog and more like wandering through a store.
The Big Idea: Timing is Everything
Like Ajax, some great ideas are merely revisions of concepts that failed the first time. Three companies breathing life into dead genres:
MySpace
With few users, personal site pioneer TheGlobe.com was a waste of time. Now 72 million members make MySpace a great time-waster.
Google
Excite and Lycos were early to the portal space, but it took Google to fully integrate powerful search with email, IM, and advertising.
YouTube
Real saw the video revolution coming, but suffered from glitches and minimal content. YouTube makes it easy to upload, search for, and play a gazillion video clips.
Jesse James Garrett
credit Robyn Twomey
2006 Rave Awards:
>
Bryan Singer & the Man of Steel
Plus:
>
Podcast:
Games:
Science:
Policy:
TV:
Blogs:
Renegades:
Business:
Industrial Design:
Architecture:
Tech:
Medicine:
Books:
Music:
PLUS:
