Web 2.0 is a progressing idea of what the evolution of the internet should be. Interactivity, dynamism, and user generated content are the hallmarks of Web 2.0. For web programmers, they have grasped this idea and have created exciting and dynamic content. However, if such goals are set for the internet, shouldn't the technology to create these websites evolve along with it? Many have taken Web 2.0 to heart, but have based them on the same technologies as older, static websites. It is very common for us to experiencetrying to uploading multiple photos, but have given up in frustration because the page has to slowly refresh multiple times.
Of course, some web programmers have already realized this, and have created AJAX. AJAX stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML, and is best described as a combination of Javascript and XML techniques that have been design and implemented to create the ideal Web 2.0 experience. The following video explains it more clearly.
A web-page that no longer needs refreshing is the main benefit of AJAX. This might seem like a simple and trivial advantage, but this emerging technology will have multiple benefits. For a more personal example, McGill Professors and Students would have less frustrations about WebCT if it was AJAX based, instead of obsolete the framesets it uses. In the web, speed is key, and sites that needs less refreshing have a definite competitive advantage.
In relation to Porter's Five Forces:
Competitive Rivalry within an Industry
With the ease of creating a website nowadays, competition over visitors is intense. Countless websites compete in this saturated environment to get the most visitors possible; the simplest, the fastest and the most user friendly always come out on top. Many of these top websites have started implementing AJAX, which differentiates them from the intense competition.
On January 15, 2008 theilife.com won over multiple Apple fans when it decided to host a live blog of Steve Jobs' Macworld 2008 keynote speech. This was just one of hundreds of live blogs for the event, but this site became one of the most visited live blogs for the event. It beat out other website giants such as cnet.com because users never had to refresh their browsers to get a new update. On the other hand, cnet required constant refreshing which crashed the page and lost its visitors.
Threat of New Entrants
The competitive advantage of early AJAX adopters, though, is only short lived. Being such a simple technique to implement, it is most likely that a majority of web developers will be switching to an AJAX framework very soon. There is definitely a high threat of new entrants for AJAX users and so they will have to use AJAX in creative ways to improve their websites.
The good news is that AJAX has so many ways to be implemented in different situations that each website has the opportunity to use it to differentiate themselves from others despite the fact that they all rely on AJAX.
The concept of AJAX has been around for a few years, but has only started becoming popular within the last few months. Now, major websites such as Google and Blogspot are adapting this framework and it's evident in their performance that AJAX is the way to go.
Sources:
AJAX: A New Approach to Web Applications
http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000385.php
AJAX: Getting Started
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/AJAX:Getting_Started
AJAX.org
http://www.ajax.org
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