Ajax and RIA (Rich Internet Application) for Christmas

Ajax

I came across an interesting article at CRM News that spoke a little' bit about online shopping for this upcoming Christmas season.

RIAs are beginning to pop up all over the e-commerce world, with some notable examples being Gap, Nike (NYSE: NKE), and L.L. Bean. So far the use of AJAX and RIA in online retail tends to be limited to marketing “microsites,” usually built in Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR), which enable customers to explore a new product but not purchase it; and also for “guided selling” applications that provide some extra help in choosing the right product. But as the technologies have been maturing, a new generation of software vendors have emerged that specialize in building “Rich Internet Commerce” applications - RIA and AJAX applications specifically for the e-commerce world - which are beginning to paint a picture of what the future pageless Web may look like.

This article poses some questions:

  1. How many companies are going to try to utilise and/or exploit Ajax on their shopping sites?
  2. Are they going to do an effective job?
  3. Will it meaningful and help customer experience or just bells and whistles?
  4. Is the average consumer even ready for “all the hype”?