AJAX is nothing new, the technology has been around for some time, but the application of the technology has only been widely adopted in the last 18 months or so. AJAX is nice from a user perspective because it allows for seamless experiences when submitting or requesting information, so, for example, if you want to spell check an email before sending it, you don’t have to wait for the whole screen to reload – click on a button and the miss-spelt text will just get highlighted. Click on each miss-spelt word and a choice of correctly spelt words appear. No need for the page to reload or any other irritating, time consuming barriers get in your way. Genius! As mentioned in a previous article, its elements like this that make browser based experiences more like traditional desktop-based applications. With each new service, it becomes increasingly clear that technologies like AJAX can make our online experiences that little bit more pleasant. Time and time again I come across a website where it has been put to good use and has dramatically improved the overall user experience. Places where I find it really useful include Gmail, del.icio.us, Flickr and Google maps.
The observant people out there will notice that two of these sites are Google based! There’s a good reason – AJAX functionality takes a long time to develop, it’s complicated stuff and not any Tom-Dick-or-Harry can get it working. Unfortunately it’s not easy to share functionality with other websites. If, for example, you see a feature that has a uses AJAX in a way you would like to adopt in your site, you can’t just take it and use it. If Google wanted to share its spell check functionality they can’t. Unfortunately, all the technical ‘bits n pieces’ have to originate from the same place – you want an automatic spell check, you have to write the AJAX and make sure you have a good dictionary service to support it.
The smaller fry – the developers and companies who see the potential of AJAX, but don’t have the resources or databases to warrant such a venture have to look in at the bigger companies in awe. Not any longer! An emerging technology called Cows AJAX (hopefully, soon to be renamed something else!)allows developers to share the functionality of their latest dynamic, web-based creations with others. With Cows AJAX, Google can offer a line of code that any competent developer can simply paste into their service and, hey-presto, they have a spell check. One of the most interesting areas of web development is now where it should be – out there for everyone to share!
This is a good development for any businesses and individuals using the Internet. More importantly, it’s good for their end users who will have a better online experience. The ability to utilise tools developed by big web companies means that imaginative uses of AJAX based functionality could exponentially increase. Much like when a music producer hears a good sample and uses it as the basis for a completely new music track, Cows AJAX will allow developers to cut and paste solid functionality and apply the features to their own personal interpretations.
From a business perspective, there will clearly be a market for premium Cows AJAX features. be a market for premium cows AJAX features as well. For example, Google may offer the AJAX functionality that underpins their maps service (This is the bit that lets you seamlessly scroll around the globe and zoom in and out), but may insist that adverts are added as well. For a price though they may take these adverts away.
There will no doubt be a lot of dross that appears as a result (what’s new), but this dross will nicer to use! It also means that the rest of the developer community has one more building block in their ‘tool kit’ and one less thing to worry about when building the next must have service.
You can read a slightly techier synopsis on Cows Ajax and a demonstration of the spell check feature mentioned in this article go here and here
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