2007 - End of Javascript and AJAX?

Happy New Year!

We’ve seen the massive growth of AJAX in year 2006.

Could year 2007 be the end of it?

There have been a lot of security issues regarding javascript reported for the past few months. And today, right on the first day of January, someone has discovered a javascript flaw that enables any site to obtain your gmail’s email address and contact list. Unfortunately at the time of writing the sites demonstrating the flaw is down, but you can read the discussions about it over at these two [1] [2] pages on Digg.

With the rising security concerns in Javascript and AJAX, 2007 could possibly be the end of them. It’s tough that this statement is coming out from a web developer like myself who has done quite a few projects using the neat AJAX technology but with the increasing of security issues revolving around Javascript (which forms the ‘J’ in AJAX, thus is an essential component of AJAX), security concern web surfers might be turning off Javascript soon. Or worse, web browsers could be forced to ship with Javascript turned off by default.

One scenario which I predict might happen is that security companies or Javascript safety certification companies might start issuing certificates ensuring safety of Javascript of sites after check has been conducted on the safety of the scripts. Browsers would then only turn on Javascript when such valid Javascript safety certificate is present.