Comments on: Ajax Usability Concerns

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:46:51 +0000

As google recently posted in their blog, they are actually researching a way to make ajax content visible to their crawler by adding certain tags to the externally loaded content url’s. This will make things a lot easier then in terms of SEO.

By: clipping path

clipping path — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:14:34 +0000

Very informative article. Thanks.

By: Lenen

Lenen — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:04:42 +0000

Paradigm shift is indeed a nice alternative and for me easier. The comment about SEO and AJAX is not making sense, if you build it right; every searchengine will appreciate it and take all your AJAX stuff for granted.

By: Car Hire In Reykjavik

Car Hire In Reykjavik — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:44:29 +0000

Hi! Ajax is a great technology and there is not doubt about that but its not a seo friendly language so i would suggest avoid it as far as possible.

Regards
Hermann

By: Bart F

Bart F — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:12:37 +0000

Nice article. I think ajax should be used to ENHANCE the user experience.
Which means that everything should work if a user chooses to disable javascript or has a browser that does not support it.

Regards,

Open Source Pixels

By: web programming

web programming — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:25:53 +0000

AJAX is not at all search engine friendly so it should be avoided.

By: abhi web designer

abhi web designer — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:19:56 +0000

Hi! Thats really a nice post. Search engines can not read AJAX and its better if we avoid it if we are targeting search engines.

By: superjumbo

superjumbo — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:45:11 +0000

In SEO scenario Ajax is little bit tough. Great post, keep it up.

By: Fred333

Fred333 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:23:34 +0000

Ajax is tough to use when you are taking about SEO. Great article though.

By: Michael Zuschlag

Michael Zuschlag — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:54:40 +0000

Re: Washington Post tabs. I would use animation only in desperation given it may distract or delay user action. What’s the point of AJAX if it slows the user down?

The problem I see with the Washington Post tabs is that they don’t look like tabs. The labels are colored and underlined like links, so no surprise people expect them to work like links. Controls with distinctive effects should have distinctive appearances. In the case of tabs, the tab for the current panel should have the same background color as the panel (white, in this case). A border comprising the tab and panel is necessary so it appears as a contiguous object. Three-D visual cues can be used to make the current panel and tab appear to be in front of the others. In other words, a tab should look like a tab in a thick-client app.

That’s a general good rule of thumb: Copy the appearance of thick-clients controls. Most of these appearances have been tested and proven effective. Those that haven’t are at least familiar to many users. If you really think you’ve a better way than thick-clients (and surely there are better ways), then plan to test it. Don’t make it different just to look different.

Oh, and I’m suspicious about the use of tabs at all in this case. What sort of categories are those? How is a user supposed to know if a comic is “washingtonpost.com” or “web comic”? Aren’t there web comics that are also editorial? Where should a user look? I’d think the one thing the user knows is the name of the comic they want to read. I’d bet they’d be better off with a single scrollable pane of all comics sorted alphabetically.