Introducing Web 3.0

Technologically, the main difference between Web "1.0" and Web 2.0 is the addition of AJAX. For those of you who are unfamiliar with AJAX, you basically use Javascript on a page to dynamically update only portions of the page required.

The problem with this approach is, in some applications, the web browser needs to constantly poll the server to check for updates. Examples of this include Email (e.g. notification when you get a new email) and Instant Messaging. Events in these applications are not always user-generated. Currently this is problem is solved by the application checking for updates on the server at a predefined interval (e.g. 30 seconds). This places a huge burden on the web server.

Introducing Web 3.0: The event-driven web. With Web 3.0, the 30-second poll is no longer required! Instead, the browser maintains a persistent HTTP connection to the web server. The web server uses this connection to throw events at the browser as required!

There's already a suitable spec out: Server-sent DOM events. Take a look at the <event-source> element.

Advantages

  • Reduced server load - One connection per client, no overhead of serving polled connections
  • Instant delivery - e.g. of Emails and instant messages

Disadvantages

  • Poor browser support. At the moment, I think only Opera supports <event-source>.

Comments

Submitted by Joelith on Thu 30/11/2006 - 22:49

What no JIX based support?

Submitted by QueenBee on Sat 02/12/2006 - 17:13

ahhh thats probably being saved for web 3.1