Internet:Rich Internet Applications

Rich Internet Applications - have the features of desktop software such as responsive user interfaces and interactivity even though they run online.

By 2005, developers were learning to use asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) to produce applications like Google Maps.

(Lawton, 2008)
 * AJAX based RIA development platforms include: Microsoft's ASP.NET, Google Web ToolKit (GWT).
 * Non-AJAX based include Adobe's Flash and AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), Microsoft's Silverlight (allows applications to run on non Windows platforms as it installs a plug-in similar to flash), and Sun Microsystems JavaFX.
 * AJAX - coined 2005 by Jesse James Garrett.
 * Ajax applications generally create JavaScript code that run in the browser
 * Process utilises asynchronous JavaScript, which an HTML page can use to make calls to a Web server to fetch documents. This allows the application to make server calls, retrieve new data, and update the web page without reloading all the contents.