Datasheet

Not all of Basecamp employs Ajax, but what makes it compelling is the mixture of server-side interac-
tion and Ajax techniques that aren’t overused, but are put into practice when they can be of benefit to
the end-user experience.
Amazon (A9.com)
Amazon is well known for its store site, but less well known for its search engine, www.A9.com, which
combines search results from a whole host of sources. Search engines have remained fairly static in terms
of their user interface since their inception. You type a word and click on Search. What has changed is
the complexity of the searches behind the engine and the different sources you can now interrogate.
Amazon’s A9 allows you to search on a single term across media such as movies, books, Wiki pages, and
blogs. Figure 1-3 shows what a typical search on “Tour De France” would yield.
Figure 1-3: Results of a typical search on “Tour De France.”
Ajax comes into play where you click on the check boxes to add or remove searches. You can click on the
People link, and a box will appear without a refresh, even though you didn’t include it in the original
search. You can uncheck the References and Movies boxes, and immediately these links disappear. It’s
instantaneous and very much in the spirit of a rich and responsive user interface.
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Chapter 1: Introducing Ajax
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