'Net Features : ajax

AJAX Search & Conversion Optimizer at SLI Systems

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:25:00 GMT

Site search provider SLI Systems announced two rather impressive enhancements to its solution. The company launched "Learning Search with AJAX" to improve and quicken site search and navigation experiences for users, and introduced "Conversion Optimizer" for multivariate testing of site search and navigation.

Learning Search with AJAX (which increases page load times resulting in higher conversion) requests only the necessary data from SLI’s search servers when a visitor performs a search or selects an option on the search page (for example, narrowing results based on price or color, re-ordering search results, switching between grid and list views, clicking on a related search, or viewing an additional page of results). Because Learning Search with AJAX doesn’t require a reload of the entire webpage, search results appear more quickly – an important must-have for e-commerce websites whose customers expect a site to be fast and efficient.

SLI Systemns also announced the launch of Conversion Optimzier today, a tool for conducting A/B and multivariate testing of search and navigation features. The solution will allow website owners to run tests on variations in site search design and features to determine which options encourage desirable customer behaviors, thereby improving conversions. For instance, site owners can test various positions for the search box, or format and refinement options for search results pages, and view the results of the tests in an easy-to-read console.

“Testing the various options for site search design takes a lot of time, and often doesn’t yield actionable results, leaving you without a clear indication of best practices for your site,” said Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. “Our new Conversion Optimizer solves these problems, since we take care of the complex testing configurations for our customers – and they can see test results quickly.”

Microsoft Cozies Up to Designers and Developers

Mike Phillips — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Microsoft seems to be feeling the heat from other SMB providers. Recently they have launched BizSpark, a discount program for startups. Now they're hoping to entice the designer/developer crowd with WebSiteSpark. The program offers access to a host of applications from Microsoft Expression and they're offering it at a major discount - just $100, including training and some support.

The software included in the deal are Visual Studio Professional, Expression Studio 2 or 3, Windows Web Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008. In addition, WebSiteSpark participants will have access to WebsiteSpark Marketplace (to find developers), Partner Solution Profiler (providing a marketplace for freelance developers) and the Web App Gallery, a community for developers to show off their apps. Eligible businesses can participate for up to three years, at the end of which the $100 is charged, and Microsoft hopes to sell you their full suite of design/development services.

There are some conditions:

The business must provide design and development services to clients
The business is limited to having 10 employees or less
Businesses must join the Microsoft Partner Network (if not already members)
To continue eligibility, the business must, "...deploy a new public and Internet-accessible website developed using Program software within 6 months from Program enrollment, and report it and other new websites through the WebsiteSpark Portal."
Those continuing with the program must also renew their enrollment each year.

And once the three years are up, developers will no longer have access to the tools unless, of course, they decide to pay up.

For more information and full terms and conditions, visit Microsoft WebSiteSpark.

Also announced recently by Microsoft ASP.NET team (agains, aimed at SMB's) is a free AJAX content delivery network (CDN), that provides caching support for AJAX libraries (including jQuery and ASP.NET AJAX) and is billed as a competitor of Amazon's fee-based CloudFront CDN. Scripts are available on the Microsoft AJAX website. And for some detail on how to use the service, check out ScottGu's Blog.

NetSuite Now Chrome Friendly

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:17:00 GMT

Business management software (ecommerce, CRM, accounting) provider NetSuite announceds its support for the Google Chrome Browser.

The new Google Chrome Browser enhances the performance speed for AJAX-powered features of NetSuite, such as eXtreme list editing, type-ahead lookups, rich text editing, drag-and-drop and quick-add portlets.

"At NetSuite, we strive to offer our customers the latest innovations that will enable the greatest degree of choice, flexibility and productivity," said Per Jakobsen, Vice President of Product Management at NetSuite. "We salute Google for the innovation they've offered in their new Chrome Browser and are pleased to be able to offer early support for Chrome to all NetSuite and OpenAir customers."

Ajax & Ecommerce: SuperShoes.com

Administrator — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:44:00 GMT

Online footwear retailer Supershoes.com will unveil a new site based on Ajax technology. Ajax, an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is noted for achieving increased responsiveness and interactivity of web pages by exchanging small amounts of data with the server "behind the scenes" so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user performs an action.

Ajax could provide users of SuperShoes.com visitors a more streamlined experience. Rather than moving from page to page, Ajax-enabled pages change around the user, based on the actions they take. Citing the website’s new One Page Checkout, Continuously Viewable Shopping Cart and improved sorting functions to aid shoppers in finding what they want quicker, Frank Malsbenden, VP and General Manager describes the relaunch as “the best application of Ajax in an ecommerce environment on the web.”

The site’s new One Page Checkout allows customers to complete each stage of the checkout process from a single webpage: the page works like an accordion, unveiling each subsequent step in process when the step before it is complete. The process greatly simplifies the experience for the user making checkout quicker, more seamless and allowing the shopper to view all the information she has input on one page or to toggle back and forth between checkout steps without losing any information already inputted. Ajax was also leveraged to offer new dynamic sorting functionality. Now customers can sort product by gender, brand, category, color and price and watch the page dynamically update before their eyes, rather than being shuffled to another page to view the sort results.

Citing the level of difficulty in applying Ajax specifically, Malsbenden explains “despite the technological obstacles you encounter when using a new technology, our belief is that if it greatly enhances the customer experience it is our responsibility to overcome them.” Indeed, Supershoes.com had to work closely with service provider More Visibility to ensure their search engine optimization would not suffer as a result of using Ajax. While search engines recognize distinct urls to calculate the relevance of a site based on the searchers’ terms, and Ajax operates by reducing the number pages (and hence urls) in a given site, there is a risk of losing search engine placement that would normally be attained through redundancy of terms.