With the announcement that Yahoo bought Zimbra for $350 million, I thought back to this early 2006 Ajax conference presentation by Scott Dietzen from Zimbra where he blew the audience away showing off the Zimbra toolkit. It was the first time I was actually really pissed that we had to historically settle for crappy Microsoft solutions.
By the time the bubble burst in 2000, the Internet – once a vibrant center for innovation – had become stagnant. In 2005, we were introduced to the new Internet (sometimes called Web 2.0) where innovation and the end user experience ruled. This new, interactive Internet has allowed users to flock to social networking sites such as MySpace, to tag photos and websites using Flickr and de.lic.ous, and to do things on the web they had previously done only on a desktop: drag and drop an item, slide an item around the screen, and immediately view an application without downloading heavy software, among other things.
Until 2004, AJAX was known strictly as a bathroom cleaner; in 2005 that changed, as the powerful Web scripting language bounded onto the scene and helped developers create innovative, interactive Web applications. These applications, which require no software installation, have enabled developers and users to integrate the formerly separate “push” and “pull” Web experiences into one seamless experience.
Additionally, AJAX-based development is being increasingly used to provide users with faster, more useful access to the information they need. For example, it is possible to mouse over a mailing address and see its physical location on Google Maps, or to mouse over a FedEx tracking number and view the status of a package.
