I was beginning to wonder what the buzz Ajax stuff meant until i started experimenting with it does the this sound new to anyone or common i seem to like the tech

Yeah,

AJAX is becoming such a buzz word that pple r now feeling compelled to use it at every turn, as if it is the second coming of Christ.

Take my job for instance: Now that the project managers think "AJAX" is a pretty cool name, they ask for it at every turn. "We want to implement a photo gallery for our cars, do it in AJAX". Of course, they are not aware that if the number of photos is fixed and less than 5, then it doesn't make sense to use AJAX, at least to me. Now if the number were not known upfront, in which case the server cd be pinged for say, the next 3 photos while the present 3 are loading, it makes sense to use AJAX. It is getting so silly that even the developers are thinking of "AJAXifying" the entire site without thinking about the pros and cons. It sort of reminds me of the abuse of Flash on various naija websites. I would say that for every 10 naija sites I have visited, 11 use Flash. Nothing wrong with using flash, but there is definitely something wrong with abusing it.

Is AJAX cool? sure. Can some pretty cool things be done with it? sure. However, most pple tend to forget that the essence of AJAX is to return data, stripped of all formatting and not for returning an entire page.

So, in a nutshell, use AJAX but don't just use it for AJAX's sake or to look "cool". Know when to and when not to use it and be able to stand your ground when it comes to educating those who may want to bully you into using it, even when it isn't ideal. You may look "cool" with the babes/clients, but definitely not with your peers.

I hope this helps.