"The Web is essentially a massive information repository. It is a vast and diverse universe of information - from airline flight information to package tracking data, to whole texts - that is globally accessible. Until recently most of this information has been available through the use vertical or targeted web applications and websites in which the data and presentation were tightly coupled within HTML pages.

With the emergence of Web 2.0 this is all changing. By leveraging a set of canonical technologies, such as Web Services and REST, Web 2.0 provides the potential for universal and generic access to once siloed and difficult to access information. Unlike Web 1.0, Web 2.0 aims at separating information from presentation. While this is in and of itself incredibly powerful, information must still be aggregated and presented to users in meaningful and useful ways.

AJAX is a combination of open and generally available technologies that enable one of today's most ubiquitous pieces of software, the web browser, to become a general and universal application hosting platform for Web 2.0. AJAX empowers application developers to develop browser-based applications with the capability to access, aggregate and present information from disparate information repositories and systems. Furthermore, AJAX enables the creation of rich and dynamic visual interfaces on par with those that users have come to expect from traditional desktop clients. Thus, AJAX applications are able to overcome common end user complaints about web based applications being thin, less capable, less feature rich, and thus less usable than their desktop cousins. Ultimately, AJAX provides the application engine for Web 2.0.

Ironically, the technologies that comprise AJAX - such as JavaScript, XML, XHR, and even DHTML - have been available for a number of years. However, it is in combination with the new Web that they become so very important and relevant. This combination enables the creation of rich, full featured zero footprint browser based applications that will help eventually drive the software as a service (SaaS) paradigm to the point of ubiquity. We are already seeing a broader emergence of SAS both in the industry and in the marketplace; it certainly seems like we are on the brink of a sea change in the way that a large segment of software will be delivered, deployed and sold."

JOUK PLEITER, Co-Founder and CEO of Backbase, leading Rich Internet Application (RIA) software and solutions provider, reckons that what truly makes Ajax special is that it brings the power of the traditional client-server environment into the browser, resulting in a richer, superior end-user experience. Here's how he explains that further:

"As Internet users increasingly demand more from their online user experiences, gone are the days of click-and-wait web applications with poor interaction. Many current web applications offer a confusing user experience that results in high abandonment rates, loss of end-user productivity and lost revenue. Web developers trying to address user interface problems are often frustrated by the limitations of HTML, which was designed for browsing and exploring static documents and is not well-suited to deliver rich, interactive, data-driven applications.

Ajax-based RIAs enable companies to dramatically improve the way they communicate and interact with their customers, resulting in higher online customer conversion rates and “stickiness.”

Tackling the problems of browser-based application development, Ajax introduces a new web presentation model that is completely different from classic page-based web applications. Ajax solutions contain a client-side engine, consisting of JavaScript functions, which renders the user interface and communicates with the server in XML format. This engine sits in the browser and does not require a plug-in or user-install. The formalization of this model makes it possible for developers to create RIAs that have the same richness and productivity as desktop applications, are based on open standards and offer cross-browser and cross-platform portability.

Developers are starting to realize that there is a lot of power to tap into with Ajax that doesn’t require them to learn new skills to begin creating rich user interfaces for their web applications. Additionally, the increasing availability of comprehensive tools, such as Backbase, that embraces and extends the web development technologies they are already familiar with; plugs into their preferred IDEs; and provides customizable, pre-built widgets are helping developers, even those new to Ajax get, their development projects up to speed quickly and easily."

The final word on this particular occasion goes to RIA pioneer and AjaxWorld Conference & Expo speaker COACH WEI, CTO of Nexaweb:

"Fundamentally, the AJAX phenomena reflects an eye-opening realization of what the web can be for the millions, instead of being a fascination of JavaScript/DHTML per se.

For the last ten years, the millions of netizens have accepted the web’s “click and refresh” experience as “that is the way it has to be”. In the background, there are various techies (for example, during 1998 and 1999, I wrote a word processor hosted at www.ajaxword.com, and there were startups like webos.com, desktop.com and halfbrain.com, all doing “Ajax” stuff in a much more polished way than most of the Ajax apps you would see today) screaming for a better web.

These techies are loners. The market was not ready and the millions of netizens were not even thinking of something different. I clearly remember myself talking to some well known executives in software companies in 2000 and 2001 about the “problems of the web” and they were like “huh?”.

The true tipping point is due to applications like Google Maps. Apps like Google Maps woke up the millions. For the first time, the millions of people realized how better the web can be. The better web is exciting – it is faster, it doesn’t require constant “click wait and refresh”. For the first time, the millions realized life can be so much better. Then the acronym “Ajax” came along and then the excitement around Ajax came along.

On the other side, forget about “ajax”. The truly exciting thing is about “web 2.0”. The next generation web and the opportunities that it creates. The web will be more responsive, smoother and reliable. It would be more enjoyable to work with. It would unleash a new set of business opportunities that were not possible before. Look at the various exciting companies, ranging from RIA infrastructure/tool companies; new e-commerce/airline ticket booking companies, new media companies. A new level of excitement of VC interest is starting to emerge.

In summary, the fascination is not about the acronym “Ajax” per se. The excitement is about what the web can be and it can do, in ways that are so different but so much better than what we have been used to. The excitement is really about what this “new” web can enable."

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