If you're into Web 2.0, AJAX, or even just web development, you must read the rather paranoid "Danger 2.0" article in the October 26, 2006 edition of Network Computing (Vol. 17, No. 22).
I'll warrant many of the authors concerns are likely valid, but at the very least his presentation is overly intense.
One section mentions how the payloads in XML and JSON transfers increase traffic to and from the server because of syntactical requirements. Sending the entire page is better?? Granted he's coming from the SOAP world...but if anything has intense syntactical requirements it's SOAP.
True, there's no standard markup in AJAX, but that means companies can chose their own XML, JSON, or just plain XHTML for their transactions.
In the end there are security and load concerns with AJAX, but everyone switching to SOAP, Active X (herk), or back to fat clients is certainly not the answer.
Just my opinionated $0.02.
Your life is in your own hands when you use these things. Even when the lid says, "line up arrow with cup seam" there's still great potential for diluvian disasters. Granted, the cup lid wasn't sealed, but it did look sealed...
Needless to say, I'm a little...coffee stained.
Phone rings. "Hi do you take MasterCard or Visa there?"
"What are you interested in buying?"
"Thank you. <
Ha! I knew it. You're a spy! Mwahaha! No more ignorant consumer here! No more knee jerk "yes" or "no" from me!
Sorry... :) It just felt good not to get hoodwinked.