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The trend of Internet applications is toward rich, dynamic, user-friendly, process-relevant and personalized applications. Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) deliver desktop software like functions on the web to enable new kinds of engaging, highly-interactive applications and user experiences. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) has emerged as an attractive approach for the development of RIAs. This paper discusses pros and cons of the AJAX web model and software development tools for RIAs. Two AJAX-based examples, pest distribution map and input suggestion, developed at the University of Florida are illustrated. Our experience indicates that AJAX is an essential element of RIA and the technology will offer the potential for considerably more powerful and user-friendly web applications.