Search Players & Ajax

Google’s Ajax SDK release last week recieved little fanfare. Am I the only one that thinks this is big news?

Google of course understands the ways that Ajax is forever changing the way people use the web. With the release of Yahoo’s new heavily Ajaxed tech section we may be seing a new and interesting Google vs. Yahoo battle brewing over Ajax based environments. Like all other battles between the two Google is in a great position to leverage their technology and understanding of search and Yahoo can leverage their content. I was hoping to see a search for “digital cameras” in Yahoo return a link to the tech section in the Yahoo SERP but for some reason this isn’t being done. Knowing Yahoo it’s probably a tech issue with their SERP that makes this difficult.

However, in the battle of RIA tools I put Yahoo as the clear winner. Yahoo’s UI Library seems much more extensive. One of their developers actually created Tetris from it.. which is pretty darn cool. I don’t think anyone’s pulling that off with Google’s release.

Ask has already embraced Ajax, though I don’t like what they’ve done as they provide more flash than function. The big question I have is where is MSN in all this?