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Ajax Is the Buzz of Silicon Valley

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the follow-the-buzz-to-the-honey dept.

Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Ajax, or 'Asynchronous JavaScript and XML,' is allowing webpages to update as quickly as desktop software, powering applications like Google Maps and attracting money from Silicon Valley investors, including for a collaboration-software company called Zimbra. The Wall Street Journal reports: 'Zimbra's chief executive, Satish Dhamaraj, says that when he started his company in December 2003, "I really thought that Ajax was just a bathroom cleaner." Now his San Mateo, Calif., business has amassed $16 million in funding from venture-capital firms including Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Benchmark Capital, the firm that famously funded eBay Inc. Peter Fenton, an Accel partner, says Ajax "has the chance to change the face of how we look at Web applications" and could boost technology spending by corporations, because Ajax is also being used to develop software for big companies, not just for consumers.'"

3 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So, nitpicking... by kjs3 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I thought it was that powdery stuff in the can under my sink.

  2. Thank you! by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 0, Redundant
    Seriously you build upon the failures that DHTML, HTML, Javascript, XML, XMLHTTRequest and you form a system which requires at least a 1 ghz processor just run a very simple GUI. There is nothing special about this other than the incredible amount of sheer dependencies that exist. You cross browser incompatibilities you have inexact everything.
    Indeed. Reminds me of the standard /. response to anything that mentions Flash (Standard rebuttal for the "Flash-sucks-because-of-animated-ads-but javascript-doesn't-even-though-it's-used-for popups" brigade).

    People here lambast Flash because it doesn't conform to the open source fundamentalist way of doing things (just like Apple, but Apple's exempt from the wrath of the /. hive mind) and a few other half-baked reasons. I respond with the advantages of it, i.e. it allows you to create cross-platform rich internet apps that don't require a whole page reloading every time the user interacts with it.

    The standard /. response to that is usually along the lines of "oh, you can do all that in HTML with just a little bit of java and just a bit of javascript with just a bit of XML. Oh, and just a little use of iFrames too, then you've got it. Almost. See? It's every bit as easy!"

    Moderators, if you're gonna hit me as a 'troll' just because I've expressed an opinion, maybe you shouldn't be involved in open source.

    --
    Drill baby drill - on Mars
  3. AJAX should die. by ARRRLovin · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I'm tired of hearing about it. I'm tired of hearing about how:

    a) It will revolutionize the internet.
    b) Change desktop software as we know it.
    c) *insert any combination of buzzword acronyms that = "save money" here*

    In short, "Industry analysts" STFU!

    --
    -Randy