World of Codecraft

In February, many people noticed that Google tested a new interface for search results. The test didn’t include any new feature and Google even loaded the standard search results page to display the results. An unfortunate side-effect of the new format was that Google didn’t load a new page to display the results and browsers didn’t send proper referrals when clicking on search results.

“A major update that Google is testing has completely broken the ability for any external analytics service like Clicky to determine the search query used by a visitor arriving at your web site. (…) If this update goes live for everyone, it effectively means that 2/3 of all searches leading to the average web site will be a complete mystery,” explained Clicky’s blog.

Here’s Google’s explanation from March: the Ajax-enhanced pages were tested on a small number of users and this change could make Google’s SERPS faster and smoother.

To solve the problem, Google will use a gateway URL for all search results.

Starting this week, you may start seeing a new referring URL format for visitors coming from Google search result pages. Up to now, the usual referrer for clicks on search results for the term “flowers”, for example, would be something like this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=flowers&btnG=Google+Search

Now you will start seeing some referrer strings that look like this:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fmypage.htm&ei=0SjdSa-1N5O8M_qW8dQN&rct=j&q=flowers&usg=AFQjCNHJXSUh7Vw7oubPaO3tZOzz-F-u_w&sig2=X8uCFh6IoPtnwmvGMULQfw

Niall Kennedy suggests that “Google is likely making this change to better track search actions and shield URL parameters from sites downstream”, but I think this is a solution for the lack of referral information in a future Ajax interface.

Google is already using gateway URLs for users that are logged in: just copy the address of a Google search result and you’ll notice that it’s just a redirect which sends Google some details about your actions.

Jon Ferraiolo of IBM and the OpenAjax Alliance wanted to share with the community news on a couple of initiatives:

The OpenAjax Alliance is requesting industry feedback on two companion initiatives, OpenAjax Conformance and the OpenAjax Registry, which have been under development for the past year.

The term OpenAjax Conformance is shorthand for the set of conformance requirements that OpenAjax Alliance places on Ajax technologies, products, and applications to promote interoperability. Version 1 of OpenAjax Conformance defines 10 specific conformance requirements on Ajax runtime libraries. An Ajax runtime library that meets these conformance requirements will allow Web developers to use that library conveniently within a given Web page with other OpenAjax Conformant libraries.

OpenAjax Conformance provides the following benefits to IT managers and the Ajax developer community:

• Seamless integration of multiple Ajax products and technologies within the same Web application, particularly with applications that use mashup techniques
• Greater certainty about product choices, where OpenAjax Conformance plays a similar role in the Ajax community as the Good Housekeeping Seal does with consumer products
• Lower training costs, lower development costs, and faster delivery of Web 2.0 innovations due to industry adoption of common approaches that build from OpenAjax standards
• Interchangeability of OpenAjax Conformant products, such that customers can choose among multiple vendors (and change vendors in the future)

OpenAjax Conformance defines three conformance levels. Full Conformance is for Ajax products that have sufficiently strong Ajax interoperability characteristics that there is high expectation that the given product can be used successfully and conveniently with other Ajax products as part of the same Ajax development task. Configurable Conformance is for Ajax products that support all of the same strong interoperability characteristics as for Full Conformance, except not in their default configuration. Limited Conformance is for products that meet a particular subset of the conformance criteria, and therefore have taken important steps towards Ajax industry interoperability, but on the question of whether the given Ajax product can interoperate successfully and conveniently with other Ajax products, the answer is “it depends”.

The OpenAjax Registry is a centralized, industry-wide Ajax registration authority managed by the Interoperability Working Group at OpenAjax Alliance. The Registry maintains an industry-wide list of Ajax runtime libraries and various characteristics of each library. For each library, the Registry lists:

• JavaScript globals
• runtime extensions (both JavaScript and DOM)
• markup extensions (e.g., custom elements, attributes or CSS class names)

These two technologies have now entered a public review phase that ends on June 30, 2008. Feedback can come in various forms, such as email to public@openajax.org, or comments posted on various industry blogs. After the public review phase ends, the members of OpenAjax Alliance will adjust the two specifications to take the feedback into account and then move the two specifications towards version 1.0 completion and approval.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/301440818/call-for-feedback-on-openajax-conformance-and-openajax-registry