AJAX, the web development technique and not the cleaning product, has been getting so much buzz for the past few months. Now I'm also seeing it mentioned in discussions about Web 2.0 as if it is part of that space. In my opinion it is something separate but I'll pick my battles. With that said Ajax is cool for a number of different reasons but most of all because during requirements sessions with users I won't have to say NO so many times. AJAX is giving web pages the ability to act more like fat clients without all those extra calories and health problems. However, my real reason for mentioning this subject today is because of a couple of things I've seen this past week.

First, IBM came out with a pretty nice tutorial on AJAX. It lays things out well for those people who have never used AJAX before and gives a pretty good background on the subject.

Second, I've had the opportunity to listen to a new podcast this week based on the subject of AJAX. The folks over at Ajaxian have put together a pretty good show. It is very well done and very informative. However, the idea that they are trying to create a community around AJAX seems a little strange to me.

With that said, the components for AJAX have been around for a few years now. The difference between now and then is that someone, somebody smarter then me (James Garrett), decided to label the interaction of those components with an Acronym. After this pattern had a label a buzz was generated. Now, for some reason, people are taking the idea of using AJAX seriously and creating a much better user interface on the web. It is strange how things happen sometimes but this time things worked out well.