Ajax Polling

Ajax polling is when a browser makes an asynchronous request to a server at regular intervals to see if anything has changed on the server. When it is determined that a change has been made, the page can be updated accordingly.

For example, a page showing product information which includes quantity available, could be polling the server consistently to see if the quantity available has changed. If so, that can be immediately reflected on the page, without any interaction from the user. This simple technique has a multitude of uses – it’s simply up to designers and developers to use their imaginations and find the most appropriate places to use this tool.