AJAX - cleaning up for Web 2

Web 2 – the next generation of web-based solutions
AJAX – the technology that makes them possible

This month I will explain what all this means so you can keep your end up if a technology-aware client brings it up.

For the ten years of the web’s existence it has been based on a page model. You type in a web address or click on a link and a page gets returned. You read the page, click on another link and another page is returned. The only exceptions to this model were third-party extensions such as Flash or Java (remember that?).

With Ajax the model changes. The screen changes without loading another page. Take a look at Google maps (maps.google.co.uk). As you drag the map over to the left more appears magically on the right. There is no real page concept, and you get all the information you need without changing to a new page.

I won’t bore you too much with the technology that makes this possible. It involves a program running in Javascript that can request XML data from the server without loading a new page. If you have forgotten, I talked about XML in the last issue. There has to be a progam running at the other end that serves it up.

AJAX Applications

If you are searching for a specific company on a trade directory, such as www.bobsguide.com, wouldn’t it be nice if you start typing the company name, and as soon as you have typed in a couple of letter, a drop-down magically appears with a list of companies for you to select. That would be Ajax – and it is on the development plan.

You have seen stock prices scrolling across the bottom of your TV screen, how about the same thing on a web page – and news stories that change in real time. That would be great for static displays running unattended.

Validation

As you fill out a form, wouldn’t it be nice if all the validation – including checking server information - was being done as you typed it in.

So you type in your customer code and get your name back or an error message comes back straight away.

If you have a very large or maybe a 3d image, wouldn’t it be nice if you could load it up in bits as the user requested a particular section or a particular viewing angle. That way you wouldn’t have to wait for a monster file to be downloaded before you could see anything. Oh wait – that is Google maps!

Content can be streamed to the page, so a scrolling display can just carry on scolling forever. Pictures can animate forever and so on.

Alternatives

Java applets were once the next great thing, but since Microsoft stopped supporting it, the language is essentially dead as far as this sort of thing is concerned.

Flash can do everything that AJAX does, and some might say better. However it is less well integrated with HTML and it is proprietary rather than an open standard.

Issues

Like Flash (and actually a much older gadget called frames), AJAX has the problem that it diverts from the page model that the web is based on. Like these other technologies, it comes with problems if used too extensively:

The other issue is that while you can wait a second or two for the page to download, it can seem an age if you are waiting for a response before you can make another keystroke. So the server has to be very fast and your programs have to be quick off the mark. A regular shared server environment may not do.

Using AJAX

Ajax is a great new technique that, used in the right place and with the right server behind it, can do great things for you. So if an application comes up where it looks like you need this sort of interactivity – talk to us.

What about Web 2

Web 2 is a very loose term almost without meaning which has been invented to describe the new generation of web sites based on the latest technology. No-one really knows what it means, it is just a term someone thought up and which people have cottoned on to. It is in most people's minds almost synonymous with AJAX.

From my blog

Put your phone number on your web site

I always recommend to clients that they put their phone number prominently on every page of their ecommerce sites. I believe it re-assures customers that if they have a problem, the customer can talk to someone.

I just proved to myself that it was the right advice for the wrong reason.

I purchased a print server from a very well-known electronics firm that we have used for years (who shall of course be nameless). It turned up and I could see from the picture on the outside of the box that it was the wrong sort of centronics plug. I didn't even remove the shrink-wrap. So I went into 'my account' => 'select order' => 'returns' => and the system told be that because I had waited more than 7 days it was too late to return it. This was on the same day it was delivered, the day after I ordered it. But the good news was that there was a form to contest this, which I filled out.

Nothing

A week passed, this wretched box still on my desk, I went back to the site so I could phone them. What do you know - no phone number. Which I hadn't noticed over many years of visiting the site.

I am sure some accountant thought it was a good idea to save money on support staff by not publishing their phone number, but it means that they have lost my custom for ever because of a £45 item. My experience over many years is that every cock-up is a sales opportunity. A failure handled well can bring you repeat business and recommendations. Handled badly and you have lost your customer.

How can you handle the problem well if your customer can't talk to you?

In any event I have learned my lesson - I will check for a phone number before I buy anything, no matter how well-known the firm.

Business intelligence

Paypal have launched a new service that I think will have legs. The concept is simple. You are walking past a poster, or you see an ad in a magazine, and the ad has a paypal symbol plus a phone number and a code.

If you want to buy the item, you just have to text the code to the number shown. You get a call back confirming that you want to purchase the item, and assuming you give the go-ahead the product is shipped to your paypal-registered address. As simple as that.

News from the web

Amnesty International has launched a campaign against Internet censorship. More on their web site http://irrepressible.info. Go there now. Sign the pledge.

Two big hitters: Yahoo and ebay are forming a partnership. Yahoo will use Paypal, they will both explore VOIP possibilities, and who knows what else will be involved. It is a logical partnership because they do not compete but are up against Google and Microsoft.

Quite a few people are looking at business opportunities for storing peoples data for them.

We have been using the backup service from www.connected.com for years and it works like a dream. All my files are backed up automatically every night to safe off-site storage. Whenever I have needed to retrieve a file it has always been there - old versions as well.

Firefox continues to make gains against IE. Now the figures are IE 85% Firefox 12%. Will IE7 stop the rot? I am not convinced.

Microsoft is really pitching their search ads hard. But you can't get away from the fact that they only do around 13% of searches despite their advantage in owning most desktops and browsers. Sorry - the results are just not as good as Google despite all the work they have put into it.

Phishing comes to the telephone. A security company has found a phishing scheme where the fraudsters replicated the automatic answering system of a bank.

Google is planning a new search page format that will increase the amoiunt of information about each page, and therefore make it easier for users to home in on the web site that best fits their needs.

Google just shelled out a cool $60 meg to advertisers caught in click fraud. Well, $30 meg to the lawyers and the rest in credits for future advertisements.

Great idea - lets rent DVDs on the internet. Oh dear - too late Netflix have already done it - and patented the idea. They are suing Blockbuster. How can you patent something like that? beats me.

In this issue

Ajax and Web 2