Port80 Software thought leader Thomas Powell has expanded on this year's series of Ajax articles on the blog with these Network World articles on the technology:
AJAX is the future of Web app development
If you've used Google Maps, Gmail or Microsoft's Outlook Web Access, you're familiar with the power of AJAX, which gives Web applications the responsiveness users associate with desktop applications.
http://www.networkworld.com/research/2006/071706-ajax-future.html
How an AJAX application works
The key to AJAX is the XMLHttp Request (XHR) object, which can be invoked to send and receive XML and plain text data synchronously and asynchronously via HTTP.
http://www.networkworld.com/research/2006/071706-ajax-future-how.html
Cheers,
Port80