Introduction

In a recent article, reporter and web developer Sean Michael Kerner declared “The AJAX World Belongs to Google”. This article refers to the dominance of Ajax in Google’s web applications and how Google’s continued incorporation of Ajax techniques is bringing Ajax to the mainstream.

Ajax is an acronym for “Asynchronous JavaScript and XML”. By collaborating the functions of various pre-existing technologies, Ajax improves user experience of the Web and makes programming more translatable and interoperational. Ajax uses HXTML (Hypertext Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), JavaScript, and sever-sided scripts like XML. The collaboration of these technologies makes web pages more responsive, interactive and usable. It is important to understand that Ajax does not refer to a discrete product, but rather a technique for web development using the aforementioned technological components.

Google, on the other hand, is the trademark for the most popular web search engine in the world. By scanning web pages for search input by the user, Goggle presents results sorted according to quality, relevance and traffic. Google’s popularity is produced in part through it’s efficient search algorithm and its extensive networking of low-cost PCs. The PageRank feature in Google sorts web pages by using a huge link structure that determines the value of a web page requested by a user query. This link structure sees how many other pages have been linked to a particular page to determine its importance. Google also takes into consideration web page quality when ranking web pages in a search. All elements of the web page are examined in a Google search to insure that it relates as directly as possible to the query.

This article will discuss the development and benefits of Ajax in Google. It will explain Google’s incorporation of Ajax technology by describing why Ajax techniques work so well for the Google search engine.

Background

A brief history of Goggle and Ajax technology will help put the attraction between the two in a historical and developmental, as well as technological, context.

Google was founded in 1998 by two Stanford University graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The primary contribution of the Google search engine was, as previously mentioned, PageRank. However, there were several other advantages. Google increases the probability of relevant results because of the sheer volume of its index. Its index contains billions of URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) that provide web page addresses. Google makes sure that search terms appear in the web page it brings up further reducing irrelevant results.

Google also searches the web for previous incarnations of web pages and pulls them up if current versions are unavailable. Google continued global dominance by developing regional versions of Google in 2004. It also included new search options for more effective web searches. For example, Google introduced options for image searches, news searches, and comparison-shopping searches. Some of these more popular features are called Froogle (for comparison-shopping), Google Maps (for directions and maps), Gmail (a web-based e-mail service increasing in popularity), Google Answers (where questions are answered based on a bidding system), and AdWords and Adsense (advertising services for advertisers and web publishers.

Ajax is the collaboration of techniques that increase web page usability. The term was coined in 2005 by Jesse James Garett. It quickly became the buzzword in web page development. It supports several interactions that signal innovations in web use. For example, Ajax can create single page web applications that function similarly to desktop applications. Ajax allows form data to be completed and validated automatically. Ajax allows web pages to update data automatically and load it based on demand without having to refresh or re-load. Ajax allows mashups that means users can mix content from third-party applications with their own to further customize results.

As demonstrated by the previous discussion Ajax technologies dovetail nicely with Goggle demands.

Uses

Google’s interventions rely on improved web development and programming. This is right where Ajax fits in. One of the strengths in using Ajax technologies in Google products are that these technologies already exist and are tested and trusted by web developers. Support is already included in most web browsers and these technologies are widely available. This use of already existing Ajax technologies used by Google keeps Google at the forefront of web development as other companies try to develop new technologies and lag behind as a result. Similarly, these tried and true technologies are powerful enough to support Google user volume.

Points of Interest

However, Google reliance on Ajax threatens other attempts at improving web applications. Other attempts to create powerful and scalable web applications are made irrelevant if, as Google suggests, the technology for accomplishing most goals already exists. For example, reduced demand for other technologies like Macromedia’s Flash and Flex and Sun Microsystems’s Java-based applications will preclude further innovations or render them a waste of time and money.

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