A few days ago at HighRankings there was a thread asking about AJAX's use to develop websites. I chimed in with my $0.02 only to find that many folks in SEO are, apparently, unfamiliar with the new technology. From my post at HR:
AJAX means Asynchronous Javascript And XML - it's a way to use the web as a platform to serve applications in the same way that programs work in Windows or Mac OS.
It's a hot item right now because lots of developers, programmers and web users are excited about the possibilities of what can be done with AJAX as opposed to just web pages that submit information to a backend script for processing and return data. The idea is that all that can now happen on a single page (and that greater functionality and flow can follow from that).
I also really liked what linux_lover had to say about it:
I have developed a couple of apps with AJAX, and thats what they are 'applications' on the web.
I would not use AJAX to make a whole site with as it requires Javascript to work (and some SE's dont parse JS AFAIK).
I see AJAX in a similar way that I see Flash - as a nice way to incorporate bespoke interactions that you dont mind if the SE's dont see.
I see it as a great way to get some link love and some attention from the webdev community (who's currently fixated on the technology). It's very similar to what you can do with Flash actionscripting but it doesn't require the plug-in (although you can't have any JS blocking on).
I dug up a good site today that should help educate about AJAX through illustration - Max Kiesler's DesignDemo - which shows off (in Flash video, ironically) how AJAX elements provide superlative UI experiences. He's got samples from all over the web, including screenshots. If you're curious about what AJAX can do, it's not a bad place to start. You'll probably recognize that some of your favorite apps already use it - Google Suggest, GMail, and soon... SEOmoz!
>Forgot to reference why I called it AJAX v. Comet - Matt's link is right on, though. <
Not to mention my post in the referenced thread...
Nice refrences, soon we will have so many ppl using Ajax that you will have to wade through the bad to get to the decent.
Jill - your first post here and it's for comedy. Bravo! Welcome to SEOmoz, BTW.
I think Comet is a really bad name, the name Ajax was chosen because it's an acronym, what does Comet mean? I use LazyHttp when I blog about it here...
I've made a "basic implementation" of Comet which can be found at https://ajaxwidgets.com/nnug/The presentation is in Norwegian, though just download the stuff in the upper left corner and you should be relatively safe... ;)WANRING: It's a Visual Studio .NET solution, so if you're in the "other camp" it won't help you much except maybe give you some hints about how to do the JavaScript things...Also I STILL think the NAME Comet SUCKS!!Use LazyHttp, though I imagine you won't get as much SEO from that... ;)
And btw, the sample is built on top of research work currently being done in Gaia Ajax Widgets which can be found at https://ajaxwidgets.com
.t
It's late. It's been a rough day. And that was the funniest damn thing I've seen.
Totaly didn't see it coming...
I find it quite incredible that a lot of the SEO community cannot see the advantages of AJAX and its impact on link bait! Still more fool them!
I am starting to warm up to AJAX myself. You can use it to add flavor to your site and still have it crawlable.
Esp with the new connection library Yahoo released there is no reason to not use AJAX anymore. Its just too simple.
ps. wtf is the title about. lol...
why it says ajax vs comet
Give the guy a break he's posting on the road ;)
AJAX is l33t. I was looking at doing something similiar for movabletype as there are some nice AJAX enabling plugins for it.
Vbulletin implemented it extrenely well. Here is guessing Rand implements AJAX in his comments system first?
Donna - oops. Forgot to reference why I called it AJAX v. Comet - Matt's link is right on, though.
The title of this post confuses me. Ajax vs. Comet. I don't see anything about Comet in here. What is Comet?