AJAX Gets a Sibling, Meet AHAH

AJAX is still kicking around as a buzz worthy topic and along comes AHAH trying to steal some of it’s thunder. AHAH is a simpler implementation of AJAX eliminating the X(ml), which the creator claims will still deliver 90% of what AJAX would have with less work for the developer. The Microformats Wiki describes it as “...a very simple technique for dynamically updating web pages using JavaScript. It involves using XMLHTTPRequest to retrieve (X)HTML fragments which are then inserted directly into the web page, whence they can be styled using CSS.”

For those not sure if i’m talking about cleaning products or 80’s pop bands, AJAX is a term given to a collection of technologies that has gained tremendoud attention this past year beginning with this article from Adaptive Path. To experience some AJAX check out Google Suggest and start typing in a search term, you’ll see a dropdown with suggestions of what you might be searching for.

The introduction of AHAH should encourage even more developers to add AJAX-type functionality to their sites, meaning sooner or later the entire Web will be one ginormous 37signals looking site.