While most Parisians are friendly, I have run into a few who give me the sour puss when I start the conversation with a "Hello" rather than "Bonjour". Desperate to re-find the art gallery that the misses loved, I had to brush up on my French in a hurry. Ajax to the rescue.

Now I know a lot of you are saying 'Bob, what does a kitchen cleaner have to do with learning the language of love?' I'm not talking about that Ajax. I'm talking about Ajax on the web. Just as we no longer think of canned meat when someone says Spam, I think the power of Ajax on the Internet may have us soon thinking about that word differently.

Not to get technical, but the Internet's version of Ajax offers the ability to create interactive experiences without the normal 'submit and reload' frustration associated with the web. Anyone who has crusied around on Google's Maps has experienced Ajax.

How could Ajax work for your site? Well, imagine integrating a dynamic Google map with all your office locations for your customers. Customers can zoom in, get directions, see satellite photos and more without leaving your site. Imagine creating forms that only show the fields needed for that person, based on information they entered earlier in the form. Ajax can certianly clean up the user experience on your site.

So back to Paris. I head to a trusty Ajax language translator that Bart Hook pointed me to and "savez-vous où le peu de studio d'art est avec le toit rouge à côté du magasin de lingere est?" has me in the gallery in no time!