Ajax takes off - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)

Ajax takes off Matt 06 Apr 2005

46 comments Latest by blue

Pretty impressive how rapidly and effectively the term Ajax has taken off. Since Jesse James Garrett coined the term, Fiftyfoureleven.com has experienced a tenfold increase in hits to the page where it collects links on the topic: “The whole concept tipped when someone (quite conceivably a connector) explained what it was all about and gave it a simple, undaunting name.”

…Before Ajax, I was documenting xmlHttpRequest links and resources and I’d get a few hits a day to that page - less than 100, some from del.icio.us but most from Google. I was ranking well for ‘javascript’, ‘xmlHttpRequest’ and the terms you’d expect. Post Ajax I easily get over 1000 page views a day on those pages alone.

The Wall Street Journal article that helped spread the word offered this explanation of Ajax: “In the past, to change even a small part of a Web page required reloading the entire page. But Ajax knows to fetch only the part of the screen that needs changing…” It’s a good elevator pitch for non-developers since it emphasizes the benefits of Ajax, not the technology behind it.

The article also ponders how much Ajax will come back to bite Microsoft in the ass (many of the Ajax technologies were developed by Microsoft). “The obvious question is how far programmers at Google or elsewhere can go with Ajax. Specifically, can they build Ajax versions of Word or Excel, thus threatening half of Microsoft’s revenue?”

46 comments so far (Jump to latest)

ac 06 Apr 05

Great, so someone coins a new phrase in a shitty effort to attach themselves to a concept that�s been used for several years. What about the developers that found this solution? Do you see them hitting dozens of blogs shamelessly promoting themselves? No, they�re working on the next cool idea that inevitably some loser will try to stamp there name.

It bugs the hell out of me that some yogurt eating, marathon running, no meat eating, Starbucks sucking marketing jackass gets as much credit for coining a stupid phrase then the developer that created it.

Jamie 06 Apr 05

Great! Now someone please rename “RSS”! Adoption of RSS would increase a ton if someone came up with a better name … and please avoid acronyms.

Dan: Sorry, just really pissed with the whole Ajax thing. Not just me, but numerous developers at some well known organizations have been using this technique for a long time. How is this new? How long has this been available in ASP world? Why can�t the creator of this term also include a code snippet with dissertation? Because he really doesn’t understand it? He should just stick with building custom choppers on the Discovery Channel.

Mike P. 06 Apr 05

Definitely looking forward to backpack.

The traffic has lulled at times but is still super high. It was quite fun to watch this thing take off, not just around the web, but in quantifiable numbers in my logfile.

Darrel 06 Apr 05

is there any work going on to make Ajax accessible? For now, it’s dependance entirely on javascript makes it less than ideal for many public facing sites, IMHO. Certainly cool in a defined environment, though.

ac…the lesson learned…any new product/technology/methodology is nothing special until you brand it with a catchy name. ;o)

ac�the lesson learned�any new product/technology/methodology is nothing special until you brand it with a catchy name. ;o)

It’s special when it’s used regularly….long before it gets tag with a catchy phrase.

It�s not the technology, it�s the design.

It’s both….one does not survive without the other.

Adam Michela 06 Apr 05

Mike: I’m still getting a shitload of referrers from your site and I’m not even sure where I’m clearly mentioned. So ya, I’d say you’re doing well :)

ac: I think you’re missing the point. It’s the designers making it hot. The technology makes it work.

There are lot’s of things that work great. Most require a good bit of design and marketing for people to realize it.

pb 06 Apr 05

How tiresome is it with all the people bragging about how old the technology is?

It’s also really lame that Microsoft shose to link httprequest and XML. There’s no reason that the data has to be formatted as XML and Google, for one, usually doesn’t format it as such.

Also holding the whole concept back is the inability to use xmlhttprequest cross-domain (without changing obscure security privileges).

“It�s the designers making it hot. The technology makes it work.” - nicely said Adam.

Kevin Tamura 06 Apr 05

Yesterday my IT guy and I were having the same conversation after looking at the new features added to Gmail (rich formatting). It really seems like Google is not that far away from an Ajax version of word.

Geof Harries 06 Apr 05

Attn: Dan Boland

Do you even know Jesse? I doubt it. So before you go start slamming somebody have the proper courtesy to leave your petty comments at home, and grow up in the meantime.

I met Jesse at the recent IA Summit 2005 and he is a super cool guy, not arrogant or “smarmy” like you’re making him out to be.

geof

JF 06 Apr 05

I’m with David.

Dan Boland 06 Apr 05

Geof Harries: From the limited amount of information I have at my disposal, I get a sense of know-it-all arrogance from the man. I could be dead wrong about that, but that’s what I perceive, and perception can’t be changed because someone else doesn’t happen to like it. Besides, your post implies you only met the man once, so…

About joking his name, I’ll admit that was wrong of me; people can’t help what their parents named them.

JF: I think the thing a lot of people are annoyed with is that Garrett gets put on a pedestal for coming up with a name for a technology that already exists. I agree with David that a catchy label is an important contribution for awareness of the technology, but let’s not give more credit than what’s due. Because the fact is that I still can’t find much information about the technology itself.

Oy… if I screwed up my tags at work as much as I screw them up here, I wouldn’t have a job.

Brady Joslin 06 Apr 05

Those who can explain technology to business managers in a simplified manner while focusing on the productivity benefits will typically reap the highest rewards. The pioneers of a given technology may not have the ability to effectively communicate in this fashion.

Managers don’t care how the technology works, they just want to understand the possible benefits and related costs.

Steve, via Den, Fla and now RDU 06 Apr 05

JF: Within our small group we’re always running into issues of little or no documentation. We find ourselves asking, “Is this too new for good docs? Or, is this just too simple for documentation?”

If the Garret document had a code sample, something to demo this methodology, I feel everything would have been ok. However, it did not and it took some time to figure out that Ajax was really nothing new, or very exciting outside the PHP/Ruby/Open source blogsphere. I kept asking everyone, �Is that it? Can�t be. Really?� Anyone remember assembler.org?

To me open source means Open Source. Found a new method for XHTML/CSS/JavaScript/blah-blah-blah? Share it, show it, give us a code sample. Don�t write a vague college term paper that provides zero information.

Those who can explain technology to business managers in a simplified manner while focusing on the productivity benefits will typically reap the highest rewards.

I have this friend with 20+ years of C. Funny, he can explain complex data structures to a 7 year old with ADD. A very successful man.

Tom Loudon 06 Apr 05

We could call it “The technology formerly known as…”. I’m not sure what it was called! At least now I have a heading for the concept in my dissertation, I was going to put XMLHttpRequest.

I’ve noticed that people who can explain complex things to other people without talking down to them are the ones who are the most successful.

Steve, I don’t know how you can subscribe to the theory yet remain a fan of 37signals.

What Garret did isn’t very different from some of the things the Signals do.

Garret wasn’t talking about something that was new, or trying to claim he invented it. He said, “hey look… this is what people are doing… this is the future” … “at our office we call it Ajax”

Steve, from Co, FLA and now RDU 06 Apr 05

I don�t know how you can subscribe to the theory yet remain a fan of 37signals.

Who said I was a fan of 37signals?

Yeah, and who said I was a fan of Steve, from Co, FLA and now RDU? Oh, no one. My bad.

Sounds like my wife….

My bad. I figured since you seem to comment here frequently, yet rarely have anything negative or contradictory to say, that you enjoyed reading SVN?

If that were the case, you would fit my classification as a fan. Apparently it isn’t.

So anyway………

Meant to imply that I�m not a fanboy.

I do enjoy reading SvN. I don’t agree with everything written here, not even close, but I enjoy reading it.

The Ajax thing is so insignificant that does not warrant a catchy name. The Ajax article reminds me of the late nineties and all the self-proclaimed web gurus that are now selling real estate or used cars. I was hoping we were beyond that.

David Grant 06 Apr 05

I’m not sure what all these new “ajax toolkits” and things will look like, but I do know that it’s a feat of engineering for Google to make web apps /that/ good. You’ll have to manually bend the browsers and servers to get results so great.

sloan 06 Apr 05

Ajax term or not, I really think seeing how it is applied (like Google maps) is the bigger catalyst. But together, with an easy to remember moniker, have made it a popular buzzword. Will it take off? Yes and no I think. As it is, no. It is a bit too complicated I think and relying on Javascript I think will hamper its adoption. But now there is an _expectation_ that the web should behave in a better manner. Which is where the real excitement is I think. PHP, Ruby, all of these technologies are now having to meet expectations, which is a major innovating force. Whether it is using the web browser’s xmlhttprequest call or not, the concept of page responding without having to reload is changing how we approach our designs and what we think is possible (or at least, what we are told is possible).

Fred, the real Fred 06 Apr 05

I leave for a few days and I miss all the banter….

Adam Michela 07 Apr 05

Where was I when “fan” became a bad word? haha

pb 07 Apr 05

maetl, I agree that the emphasis on XML is misplaced. The payload can be formattted in different ways. In fact Google rarely formats the payload in XML. More common are key-value pairs and Javascript arrays.

Andy 07 Apr 05

Check out the AJAX forum @ http://ajaxchange.com

pb 08 Apr 05

The Ajax thing is so insignificant

That could be the least informed comment of the year.

blue 29 Jun 05

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