Web 2.0? Maybe

You all know the hype surrounding Ruby on Rails, so we don’t have to talk about that. What needs talking about is the idea of “Web 2.0.” AJAX, Javascript libraries, Rails and other bits are coming together to enable some really nice, useful, usable web applications. For example, yesterday I spent 10 or 15 minutes reordering a list on one of my Backpack pages. So of course today they’ve introduced the new drag and drop interface for doing just that. This is the sort of useful thing that makes stuff better. Much more to come in an upcoming Rails release. A few examples can be found at script.aculo.us.

Is it really “Web 2.0?” Perhaps not, but it sure is getting closer.

UPDATE A few minutes after posting this, I spotted this post calling those of us pointing out the general neatness of the drag and drop interface on Backpack “fanbois [sic]”. Well then color me a fanboy. A quote…

“I’m subscribed to just a few blogs that talk about Ruby, and every damn one of them posts this with a wide-eyed vigor that Java people can only hope to match.”

Java? What’s that and why would I care if they match anything? So, to clarify. The drag and drop interface on Basecamp is neat. I hope that many more apps use things like it, and wisely. Now, back to the circle jerk, already in progress.