AJAX which stands for Asynchronous Javascript And XML is not a language or new technology but is a group of interrelated web development techniques used to create interactive web applications or rich Internet applications. Javascript, server side scripting languages, and XML are used to achieve asynchronous updates of the user page view without reloading the page. The use of Ajax has led to an increase in interactive animation on web pages. Data is retrieved using the XMLHttpRequest object or through the use of Remote Scripting in browsers that do not support it. Despite the X for XML, XML is not required nor is Javascript required. Javascript is preferred for its rich support of the DOM which allows pages to be updated programmatically. The necessary feature for an application to be considered AJAX is that requests are sent to the server and responses are returned to the page asynchronously allowing the user to continue viewing the current page without waiting for a page load. This can also be accomplished with json or iframes to get the interactive effects of AJAX. The acronym AJAX has thus changed to the term Ajax, which does not represent these specific technologies.