Some appropriate uses of ajax
(ajax == "asynchronous javascript and xml" or something.)
Oh, the hype! Oh, the buzz! We're gonna party like it's 1999!
But seriously, the technology we call ajax is pretty useful. We used to do these things with "faceless java" or hidden iframes. That worked ok, but it's not hip, like "ajax", and ajax is a better approach, anyway.
Here are two good uses of ajax....
Auto-save
We have a lot of web forms, and a lot of people are making complicated web-based applications like content management systems. One of the advantages of Word was that it would automatically save your document every few minutes. Now your ajax-enhanced application can do the same! (It's like you've advanced to 1987!)
Personalized content
One of the tragic dysfunctions of html is the lack of client-side includes. Ajax liberates. (Except for people with browsers that don't do ajax.)
Here's why this matters: you can serve an order of magnitude more static pages than dynamic pages. But if you use ajax for personalization, the personalized components are also static. Suddenly, you scale better and don't need complicated component-level caching. Even better, the personalized elements have unique urls that can be cached by content delivery networks (like Akamai).
Here's an example:
Ajax personalization example (ugly)
Regarding non-ajax browsers
Your best customers are going to use handheld telephone/computers to come to your website. These little computers have pretty small screens and pretty bad browsers that won't do ajax. You need to be sure that your websites work well for your best customers. Your website needs to be smart enough to deal with handhelds, without regard for ajax. If you're smart enough to deal with handhelds, you're smart enough to deal with old browsers and accessibility issues.
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