1.8. Ajax and Web 2.0

Shortly after the term Ajax was coined, another term began popping up. Web 2.0 was originally the name of a conference held by O'Reilly Media and CMP Media in late 2005. After that, the term Web 2.0 took on a life of its own and began popping up all over the Internet in descriptions of how the Web had changed. To try to rein in the term before it got out of control, Tim O'Reilly (founder and CEO of O'Reilly) wrote an article entitled, "What is Web 2.0" (available online at www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html), describing the concepts that he believes Web 2.0 represents. These concepts include:

• The Web as services, not software

• The group mentality of the Web—users encouraged to participate (as with tagging, blogging, networking, and so on)

• Separation of data and presentation – data can be represented in any number of ways and combined with any other data sources (called mashups)

• Richer, more responsive user experience

Ajax is tied to the last point, creating a richer experience for the user. To be clear, Ajax is not synonymous with Web 2.0, and Web 2.0 doesn't speak just of Ajax; Web 2.0 is about a shift in the very character of the Web. While Ajax is an important part of creating the next generation user experience that Web 2.0 signifies, it is just a one piece of a much larger puzzle.