Why AJAX vs Web ? Because it seems that ajax is rapidly conquering the net, but at the same time, after working with this concept for quite some time, i can say that it can be a pure pain in the ass head:
- No usable “back” buttons – in the most cases after clicking on the “back” the application dies instantly
- Asynchronous operations – while executing a script don’t forget, that your AJAX request may not have arrived and(or) still not being processed, so all sequent actions counting with an “instant” execution may be badly “disappointed”
- Complicated cascading changes – don’t forget, that there are some events in HTML, which are not executed automatically in Javascript (for example changing selected index of the <select> element wont fire the onchange trigger)
- Too “fat” clients – user don’t like their experience of slow browsing, and that is one of the reasons why they love AJAX (no pages reloading), so making a very rich “fat” client will make them remembering the page reloading experience, and then – you will get no big point in using AJAX
- There are still some users around with browsers which do not support the XmlHttpRequest
- AJAX is not a savior – it wont save you from the normal coding problems, nor will it provide with a brand new GUI interface – because you will still have to check & test your GUI’s usability
Dont get me wrong, i am not against AJAX methodology, i am hardly using it, but i think that it requires a lot of attention, and as it is still “young”, there are a lot of problems around, waiting for the developers, starting with it.
If you are not afraid of all these things – then go on, make yourself a name with a new “web 2.0123” application =O)