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Gmail helped bridge the gap between desktop and web applications by using an approach usually called Ajaxing, where AJAX is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. This involves downloading JavaScript code so that users are, in effect, running a small, responsive local application.

The AJAX engine communicates with the back-end server only when required; it doesn’t have to go back for a refresh every time something is clicked. Ajaxing wasn’t the first attempt to bridge the gap between desktop and web-based applications.

At the moment, Adobe Flash is the leading challenger. Although Flash is closely identified with showing YouTube videos and annoyingly obstrusive online advertisements, it now has its own powerful scripting language, ActionScript, and its own RIA development system, Flex.

There’s also an open alternative to proprietary Flash – OpenLaszlo, which has been used by Yahoo! and, for example, the Pandora online music service.