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Juicing the web
May 15, 2005
Another thought on my last post: For the web browser to become a really effective interface for utility computing, it's going to have to change the way it works. Refreshing an entire page every time you click a link or key some information into a form takes way too long, even if you have a lot of bandwidth. Fortunately, rapidly advancing software tools, such as Ajax, are fundamentally changing the old click-refresh cycle by allowing pieces of pages to update independently and rapidly, as Derek Powazek explains. Ajax, which is featured in James Fallows's column in today's New York Times, is most famous for allowing you to scroll around Google Maps easily. But the implications of Ajax and related technologies reach well beyond that. They promise to make the browser a far better interface for tapping into a wide variety of software applications running on distant computers.
Advertisement: Coming this spring: Nicholas Carr's new book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. Preorder now from Amazon.
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Nick's next book:
Nick's latest book:
"Future Shock for the web-apps era" -Fast Company
"Ominously prescient" -Kirkus Reviews
"Riveting stuff" -New York Post
Greatest hits
Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians
The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock's avatar
Flight of the wingless coffin fly
Other writing
The end of corporate computing
Nick's first book:
Order from Amazon
Visit book site