Many travel and holiday websites are now utilizing AJAX. AJAX is not new, but it is developing into a major buzzword in IT departments and at web developers. It’s also a potential source of friction between IT/development and marketing.
AJAX is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, a development technique designed to create interactive web applications. AJAX makes web pages faster loading and more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server so that the whole page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change. This is meant to increase the web page’s interactivity, speed, and usability. One of the “classic” AJAX applications that most people are familiar with is Google Maps.
There are some major benefits to implementing AJAX on a travel or holiday websites. It can assist in delivering an improved user experience through faster loading, improved page interactivity and enhanced visual presentation. There is also the benefit of reduced bandwidth usage as smaller packets of data are downloaded rather than whole web pages.
However, there is a price to pay for delivering this enhanced user...