JaggedSac said:
MS first used the XMLHttp object to make asynchornous server calls for an Outlook browser based application well before Asp .Net was even around. Anything else?
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Indeed, they were the first to propose the concept of the async requests. And that led them to develop a rich showcase of never-possible-before web applications taking advantage of it, and wooing the world of web developers... oh, wait, that was gmail and Google maps :) But they updated their browser to optimize its use in complex JS... woops, in the JS race among v8/squirrelfish/tangerine IE is basically sitting on the bench :)
Seriously, AJAX is an example of what I meant when I said that they clearly have people coming up with great ideas, but they often seem unable to dogfood and bring them all the way through to the next steps.
Google/Apple/Mozilla were the real force in pushing AJAX and more generally heavy-duty webapps: they optimized the relative JS engines, designed APIs, proposed new open standards. Google and others created some amazing, rich content. Meanwhile the original XMLHttp object was left aging in the ghetto of ActiveX, probably because by then MS' focus was shifting to Silverlight and they were aiming their guns at Flash.
(Ironically today the future looks brighter for HTML5+JS+canvas/SVG+new file APIs+new persistence layer APIs than for Flash. I wonder how long will it take for IE to catch up, and how will the Windows Phone 7 devices cope with it...)
