The term AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) was coined by Jesse James Garrett of Adaptive Path, Inc. in February 2005 to describe a range of technologies for developing high-performance, Web-based applications. AJAX applications include Google Maps, Yahoo's FlickR and many more. AJAX separates the user interaction portion of an application from its server interaction, enabling both to proceed asynchronously in parallel. This enables AJAX Web-based applications to perform at speeds approaching those of desktop applications reducing or even eliminating the performance advantage that desktop applications have traditionally had over Web-based applications. This has huge ramifications for the desktop applications industry-the applications platform of choice is starting to shift from the desktop to the Web. Many people believe that the Web-especially in the context of abundant open source software, inexpensive computers and exploding Internet bandwidth-will be the great equalizer, creating the next major growth phase for Internet companies.

Companies developing AJAX-based applications are already attracting significant venture capitalist interest.

Explore our new links to Ajax articles, tutorials, applications, Ajax community websites, and more.

• Check out our new comprehensive list of developers’ toolkits and libraries, and find the library of your choice.
• Visit the most popular Ajax community websites and blogs.
• Explore many of the new popular commercial and free open-source Ajax applications.
• Download Ajax code snippets and complete Ajax scripts you can use on your own website.
• AJAX in Ruby on Rails
• Find numerous Google Web Toolkit and Ajax resources.