Another war is on

And this time the weaponry is AJAX.

Once upon a time there was a web and webmail was the killer app. And then the frenzy began. Hotmail still being one of the Gates' most favourite acquisitions, the Yahoos and the Rediffs jumped on the bandwagon. Emails on web interface went on a world war paralleling the browser war reminiscent of the Netscape and IE era. Storage being the weapon of choice, after all the features had to be limited by what the web offered. Starting from 2 MB through to 2 GB and more.

Enter Web 2.0, as the aficionados perfer to call it. Read more about Web 2.0 in this article at AListApart. Call it whatever, but social networking drive (definitely coupled with Google's Gmail) has sparked off another war. And this time the weaponry is AJAX.

AJAX

Asynchronous JavaScript And XML acronymed as AJAX by Jesse James Garrett of Adpative Path, is a catch-word that has caught on fiercly in recent times. Of course, it represents a fundamental shift in what's possible on the Web. It helps close the gap in richness and responsiveness that a user experiences on a desktop application as compared to on a web application. AJAX is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies together in a powerful way. XHTML/HTML and CSS for presentation. DOM for dynamic client side interaction. XML/XSLT for data interchange. XMLHttpRequest for exchanging data asynchronously. Javascript/JScript and DHTML techniques for binding it all together. AJAX isn't a technology or a product that we can download, install and go. In the stead it is an approach, it is a way of thinking. Very much deployable as demonstrated by Google in its Gmail and Maps and Suggest and Groups amongst others. And demonstrated by Yahoo in its Flikr. And others are quickly following suit.

I will not be talking about what exactly AJAX is and how it works and how it differs from traditional web application development. For the more technically inclined there are loads of material on the Web. AJAX is not new as a concept per se. It has been around for years in form of Microsoft's IFrames and Netscape's Layers. MS Remote Scripting and more lately the .Net Callbacks. But since XMLHttpRequest is now implemented across the majority of browsers in use, AJAX is here to stay and steer the way the Web develops. You can read more on this here at this article by Jesse James Garrett of AdaptivePath.

But it is more about the new war that is raging and what it unfolds for the users like us. As more players are scrambling to get on the AJAX fever, the users have everything to gain. Google, of course the trendsetter is going to get tough competition.

Microsoft

Microsoft is moving to Windows Live. Offering services ranging from mail to online scans and news and even Office. I am experiencing performance drag and slowing down of the live.com already. Downloading some 150 items (graphics and gadgets) on the home page, it is already bogging down! There are some reviews out there of the Windows Live. Like this one on Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows. Windows Live Mail is slated to replace Hotmail one day. When that "one day" arrives, only time will tell. But whenever that happens, would be good for users for sure. And then this review at Cnet. Code-named "Kahuna", Windows Live Mail is said to provide 2 GB of storage (more than Yahoo but less than Gmail).

Yahoo

Yahoo is revamping its Yahoo! Mail. And the beta is already there. You can check out the numerous reviews on Yahoo Mail, including the unofficial yahoo weblog here. From whatever reviews I have had of the beta, it promises to the best of the lot. A lot slicker, leaner, cleaner and responsive of them. And then, there is Flickr of course. In times to come will surely see more of the new Yahoo.

Google

Gmail, as I said is the trendsetter here triggering the AJAX burst. Still in beta, I am unsure of when google actually turns it a release. But what I have noticed lately is the increased cluttering of the interface. By and large it still is slick. Google Maps is again the one which prompted Microsoft and Yahoo to go on with their own versions of Maps. The Yahoo Maps and the Windows Live Local. And then there are a lot of non-mail thingies propping up here and there. Writely.com has, as we know already been taken over by Google. It offers online word processing, liberating the user from the desktop!

Summing it up

Talking of word processing on-the-go, how can I forget to mention Ajaxwrite.com! The look, feel, and functionality of Microsoft Word, in a completely web-based AJAX platform. But as of now, limiting the audience to Firefox I don't know how it is going to stand up against writely.

One noticeable feature on all the on-the-horizon AJAX powered (rather assisted) webmails is Outlook look-and-feel. This is where I am kind of surprised. The reviews of Yahoo Mail Beta suggest it being more closely resembling the Outlook interface as compared to Windows Live Mail! Three pane, Outlook like interface seems to be getting in. And not to forget the way RSS aggregation would be built-in thrown alongwith the mails.

Anyway, let the betas get over and we shall see which way the war turns.

Note:

(All images linked directly from the respective websites. All websites are mentioned, credited and properly linked for reference. The website content has not been lifted, although has definitely inspired this writeup.)

(References: www.alistapart.com; www.adaptivepath.com; www.winsupersite.com; www.yahoo.weblogsinc.com; www.reviews.cnet.com; www.ajaxwrite.com; and www.writely.com )