(Warning overly broad generalization follows)
Web 2.0 =
AJAX
I still need to locate the first article that I read that spoke about Web 2.0 and AJAX. At the end of the article I had come to the conclusion that Web 2.0 meant websites that used AJAX.
While I am sure that the Wikipedia entry is most informative and can explain AJAX to anyone reading this post. But let me make it real short and sweet. Google Maps uses AJAX, Gmail uses AJAX, Google Talk inside of Gmail uses AJAX. (also the google spreadsheets)
AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML). AJAX allows web developers to break out of the layout restrictions of standard HTML. There are some other nice technical nuances that it eliminates.
Pros:
1. You can build applications that look and feel like desktop apps. You can have drag and drop elements.
2. You can update information on the screen without having to do a whole screen refresh.
Cons:
1. You have to know a lot about Javascript and probably how to build a webservice.
Now, I have played around briefly with Google's AJAX web toolkit. It was very cool. However, it was designed to allow you to write JAVA code and have it converted to AJAX. Yippeee, I don't know JAVA, and don't really have a desire to learn it.
Note: Google will soon finish their
secret SkyNet project and take over the world, but until then there are plenty of other AJAX kit developers out there.
The one that I found out about today through my new best friend Digg , is MuseStorm. They offer a good looking
tutorial on how to build an AJAX desktop. The thing I liked about it most is that it will let me create a desktop look and feel page that manages my RSS feeds. (Think of RSS feeds as a magazine subscription, but you get to pick the types of articles you want.) There are services out there that will aggreggate your RSS feeds for you, even firefox will do that for you, to a degree.
But this seems like the perfect project to cut my teeth on about AJAX and get some benefit, my own RSS feed manager. They have a nifty little
demo.
Well back to the grind.
