AJAX

Normally, when you enter information on a form on a web page, you press a button (usually Submit, or Go) and then page reloads to tell you whether you were successful or if you'd missed part of the information that was required. It may say that you forgot to add your post code if you were entering your address. Something like that.

AJAX is technology that allows a web browser to communicate with a web server in such a way that page reloads are not always necessary. It's generally faster and feels more like a program that's running on your PC or laptop.

Websites like Google Mail, Flickr, Wikipedia and YouTube would not be possible without AJAX, or at least they would be far less appealing.

If you're interested, and I'm not sure I am, AJAX is short for Asynchronous Javascript and XML. Any the wiser?