What is AJAX? Its Potential and Anatomy
Google or Yahoo! Maps are very fashionable and well-known applications used by masses. One can easily drag the maps and view far-flung areas. The transition of the screen is so swift and smooth that it gives you an illusion that the map is locally stored on your desktop and you are easily dragging it with no delay. This is due to Ajax.
On the contrary imagine using the same application, when you attempt to drag the map, you have to wait for the server reply with a blank screen for a short span of time. The point of the application would have been lost and the interactivity would be wiped out. Other such cutting edge applications built using Ajax that you might have experienced over the internet are drag-and-drop bookstores, dynamic web-forms, Gmail, Flicker, etc.…