AJAX and Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a term (or rather buzzword) that you often hear when describing most "modern" web sites; however, it shouldn't be a new concept to web developers. Web 2.0 is actually a consolidation of many existing technologies that allows you to provide a rich interactive user experience over the web. Examples of Web 2.0 technologies include, but aren't limited to, the following areas:

• Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), which include AJAX, Adobe Flash, Silverlight, and Moonlight
• Web services
• Blogs
• Wikis
• Social networking
• Social bookmarking
• RSS/Atom

Before the Web 2.0 movement began on the Internet, web pages often focused solely on providing the user with data. The user would simply request a page, view the page, request another page, view that page, and so on.

In contrast, the patterns and techniques behind Web 2.0 are all about the user experience with the web: AJAX and web services for rich, efficient user experiences, blogs, wikis, social networking, and social bookmarking for collaboration, and RSS/Atom so that users can "subscribe" to data.

As technologies such as AJAX evolve and are adopted in large scale on the web, Web 2.0 techniques are quickly becoming the expected user experience for the web. Mainstream examples of AJAX include the Google-based applications, such as Google's Maps, Docs, and Calendar, as well as Microsoft-based applications, such as Hotmail, and Windows Live-based applications. As users start utilizing these types of applications in their everyday lives, they will come to expect the same type of functionality in the applications you develop.