My profiles:
"Ajax [a shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript + XML] isn't a technology. It's really several technologies, each flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways. Ajax incorporates:
- standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS;
- dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model;
- data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT;
- asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest;
- and JavaScript binding everything together.
[...] An Ajax application eliminates the start-stop-start-stop nature of interaction on the Web by introducing an intermediary — an Ajax engine — between the user and the server. It seems like adding a layer to the application would make it less responsive, but the opposite is true."
You might appreciate my "Zuggest" tool.
It uses the "Ajax" concepts you're talking about and works similarly to Google Suggest but searches against the Amazon Product database as you're typing.
Check it out: http://www.FrancisShanahan.com/zuggest.aspx
It's built with Javascript, Web Services, SOAP, XMLHttp, XML, C# and ASP.NET and SQL Server.
Would love to get some feedback on it.
-fs