This post is a bit technical -- basically, it's just a prediction that Google may add widgets and chat to their webpages, in a way similar to Facebook.
The explanation:
Google is loading some search results here with AJAX. Notice the hash sign (#) in the URL:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=hostels&fp=1&cad=b
Whenever a URL has a hash sign (URL fragment) in it it means the actual webpage technically didn't change, but that the site is possibly using a technique called AJAX to load new content without changing the page.
Facebook uses a similar technique to load new Facebook pages without making the Facebook chat box go away. When you move from page to page on Facebook, the webpage typically stays the same but the content is loaded through the URL fragments.
For example, if you are logged into Facebook and go to the I Love Hostels Facebook Group, you should see a URL like this in your browser's address bar:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40896424775
then click on the Friends menu item, you might see a URL like this:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40896424775#/friends/?ref=tn
The first part of the URL didn't change and you're basically still on the same webpage (technically). The page you're viewing is the part after the "#" sign that is highlighted in red above. The part of the URL in green shows which link you clicked on to get to the page (in this case "tn" -- probably meaning "top navigation").
If you click on this link, Facebook will redirect you to the actual URL:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40896424775#/friends/?ref=tn
You'll probably be redirected to this URL:
http://www.facebook.com/friends/?ref=tn
It might not be related, but I wouldn't be surprised if Google adds widgets and chat to their sites with a similar technique to what Facebook is doing. Facebook's method of maintaining the chat box when moving from page to page is too cool from a technical standpoint not to imitate. :)
15 years
Well explained.
It's going to be an interesting couple of years with things like the above, and the adoption of HTML5.
Google Wave, is a pure web app, and will combine chat, threaded email, video chat etc all in real time. Be interesting to see how widely it becomes adopted.
15 years
I'm looking forward to HTML 5. I might use basic HTML 5 when I redesign this site.
Many features aren't 100% supported though:
http://a.deveria.com/caniuse/
http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/Implementations_in_Web_browsers
Can anyone play this video?
http://www.youtube.com/html5
If so, what browser are you using? It isn't working for me in Firefox 3.0.12 on Linux, but looks promising.
EDIT: I've tried in every browser I know of except Safari and couldn't get YouTube's HTML5 demo to work. I figured it would work on Chrome or Opera, but it didn't...
15 years
I still haven't gotten the YouTube demo working, but came across an interesting 3D plugin called O3D.
Try downloading it here:
http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/
Then restart the browser and click here:
http://o3d.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/samples/beachdemo/beachdemo.html
15 years
The only browser that I can get displaying HTML5 stuff is Safari (latest) on my trusty old iBook.
15 years
The only browser that I can get displaying HTML5 stuff is Safari (latest) on my trusty old iBook.
Thanks, I downloaded Safari for Windows and it worked.
15 years
Here's more evidence of Google's using a technique similar to Facebook's -- Google Video search results:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Arts%20Factory%20Backpackers%20Lodge&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wv#q=hostels&hl=en&emb=0&client=firefox-a
The green segment of the URL is my original query, and the red is what was appended to the URL when I did a 2nd search (changing the content without changing the actual page)...
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