I have nothing but the utmost respect for Mr. Jeffrey Zeldman. If it wasn't for him and that beautiful orange book he wrote back in 2003, I wouldn't be half as motivated to create clean content for the web. That being said, I'm a bit disappointed that he has fallen victim to the nonsensical whining of anti-web-2.0 zealots. I don't see the point and I wish it would all just go away.
As I've said before, I'm not a fan of buzzwords and there's nothing I hate more than a middle manager with a head full of technologies he knows nothing about. But let's forget about all that and think about what it is we are trying to accomplish. I don't know about you, but I would like to make better web sites. Web sites with better usability.
Let's face it, Tim Berners-Lee never fathomed the web would be used the way we use it today when he was sitting behind a NeXTcube. The HTML protocol was just not made to support rich e-mail clients that check our spelling as we type, or maps that allow us to drag them around transparently fetching more information from the server in the background. I don't see how anybody could disagree with the fact that these features enhance a user's experience on the web, and they would simply not be possible without AJAX or some other still undiscovered technology.
I'm also sick of hearing that AJAX provides nothing new. That AJAX is the same old javascript with fancy API's written on top. This is simply not true. AJAX is a collection of technologies that, until recently, nobody thought to stick together. Nobody is claiming the javascript to be interesting. It's the way javascript is being used to invoke other available resources, namely the XmlHttpRequest object, that makes things interesting. I will agree that these technologies were available in some capacity since Internet Explorer 5, but who cares! Do we disdain AJAX as a technology just because it is a collection of existing technologies that nobody had the mental capacity and creativity to stick together before now? I think not.
The sooner people stop complaining about the improper use of 'Web 2.0' buzzwords and start thinking about what this technology (or concept, or collection of technologies, or whatever you wish to call it,) gives us as web developers and how we can embrace it and enhance it, the better off we will be, and the better off the users of our sites will be. I don't care if venture capitalists are backing a hundred Ruby-based AJAX-driven social networking sites. I don't care about the money involved or the possibility of another dot-com bubble. I just care about the technology. I'm excited about what this technology offers us and I look forward to watching it shape the future of the web.