Microsoft has joined the OpenAjax Alliance, along with thirty-one other companies.
And although thirty of those corporations were named in the official press release, a rather big one was left out: Google.
The omission is more of an embarrassing slipup than an insulting snub, however.
John Ferraiolo, the Alliance’s blogger, writes, “Unfortunately, we became aware of Google after the press release went out.”
Yet Ferraiolo assures readers that he is “very happy” about the company’s participation.
He was also “very pleased, in fact staggered, by the participation level in our first OpenAjax InteropFest”; eleven new toolkits surfaced that were in line with the OpenAjax Alliance’s goals.
(Those goals, in case you don’t know, are centered on achieving “the successful adoption of open and interoperable Ajax-based Web technologies.”)
But for better or for worse, those toolkits may be more valuable than the official participation of Microsoft or Google.
It’s not either company won’t contribute; it’s just that they were already helping out quite a bit.
As noted in a BetaNews article, “For all intents and purposes, Google and Microsoft are AJAX, with Google having led the way in promoting the concept of JavaScript code that isn’t bound to browser-based events.”
In fact, it’s conceivable that their official membership will actually hurt the Alliance.
Bickering and infighting are liable to increase, and the move could draw unwelcome attention from two other organizations: “Yahoo and Mozilla may be awaiting the outcome of the Alliance’s meetings later this week . . . especially now that their two principal competitors – Google and Microsoft, respectively – may now be the group’s guiding forces,” reported BetaNews.
Still, today is a moment in the sun for the OpenAjax Alliance and its new members – even if Google was accidentally left in the shade.
