The unofficial biography of Microsoft, ASP.NET, Ajax, and jQuery

NOTE: This was cross posted from here.

The Microsoft Ajax strategy has been a bit of a winding road.  Even if you’ve kept up with the evolution, as I have, you might be a little confused.  Today, Scott Guthrie published a blog post announcing that Microsoft’s first submissions to jQuery are official.  There was a corresponding blog post on the jQuery blog.  There's also an overview video about the Microsoft submissions by Stephen Walther over on Ch.9.  What’s not covered in these posts is the historical evolution that brings us to what was announced today.  You may may be saying to yourself “So what?”  Well, the internet is full of blog posts on the topic.  Depending on the place in time when the blog post or article you come across via your favorite search engine (Bing of course) was published, you might be led astray.  Knowing what’s what and the history helps you from making the mistake of following stale information.  Dave Ward to the rescue!  He wrote up what I think if as the “unofficial biography” on the topic.  Definitely worth a read:

Javascript Libraries and ASP.NET: A Guide to jQuery, AJAX and Microsoft

-Marc