The Pragmatic Craftsman :: Simplicity from complexity : by Stanley Kubasek ::

There’s been a lot of talk about AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). Mainly because of what Google is doing with it. But AJAX, in my opinion, will be a key part of web development in the future. If you’re involved in web development, you will have to learn it (this year or next). I actually wasn’t sure what the fuss is all about. Until I read this excellent, easy-to-read article, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) with Java 2 Enterprise Edition.

How does AJAX work? You make an asynchronous (non-waiting) call from JavaScript to the server without submitting a page, the request is processed, and the result is returned to a JavaScript function as XML. Nice, heh? And simple.

AJAX is a breakthrough in web development. Hopefully, it will become a standard soon. (Go to maps.google.com to see it in action.)