Datasheet

Google Suggest and Google Maps
Google Suggest and Google Maps were both mentioned in the Adaptive Path article as good examples.
These are mentioned last, though, because their use of Ajax techniques is less pervasive than in the other
web applications mentioned and because they are probably overfamiliar as examples. Google Suggest is
a version of a search engine that attempts to offer suggestions as you type other similar searches. As
shown in Figure 1-4, it can be found at
www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en.
Figure 1-4: Google Suggest.
One thing that makes me slightly reluctant to recommend this site for Ajax techniques is that auto-sug-
gest boxes have a bad press with some users. They can be seen as intrusive or confusing or both. Users
of Short Message Service (SMS) text services on mobile phones will be only too familiar with the sense of
frustration when words such as “no” are helpfully changed to “on.” This has much to do with the code
that does the “predicting” of what you’re going to type. In Google Suggest, this is a good application of
the technique, but when using something similar to perform form validation, you should be careful not
to intrude on the usability of the form. A simple error message will often suffice.
Google Maps uses Ajax. When a location on the map is pinpointed it will load the relevant section of the
map. If you then scroll along, rather than keeping the entire map in memory, it will load the map in
blocks as and when you need them. You can see this in action in Figure 1-5; the loading is very fast
indeed.
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Chapter 1: Introducing Ajax
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