One of the technologies that I explored last weekend for the Retail Industry, was AJAX. In the world of Web development, the set of technologies available to create client-server communication and rich UI is collectively known as AJAX, for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. AJAX is an approach to creating responsive and interactive Web pages that leverages the capabilities built into browsers. 'Atlas' enables you to create AJAX-style applications, and goes substantially beyond this to offer a complete framework for creating applications that can target the appropriate platform (client and server) for application tasks, providing the same level of programmability on both platforms. To give Atlas a whirl, I installed Visual Studio 2005. You can also use the FREE Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition. I also installed the FREE SQL Server Express Edition . Once this was done, I downloaded and installed the April CTP of Atlas. I found that the quickest way to get started with an actual AJAX website was to follow along with Scot Guthrie's video. There is some cool AJAX development you can do with Sharepoint as shown by Westin Kreibels Using Sharepoint and AJAX to gather Website feedback.