AJAX.
I am playing with AJAX myself
but I see many problems with AJAX as the next generation DHTML application platform.
AJAX applications are more expensive to build, test, and update than traditional
DHTML applications.
Frankly, I am not even sure whether current crop of popular web browsers can support
AJAX because they weren't built with the expectation that a signle web page might
stay up for as long as GUI applications. When even small carefully written DHTML
apps can cause enough browser resource leaks to require frequent browser restarts,
I think good stable AJAX applications will be rarer than the picture recent hype paints.
And by the time engineers discover the cost of AJAX first-hand, .NET-based ClickOnce
applications will look much more attractive than AJAX-based applications can ever
be. [Don Park's Daily Habit]