A while back we invited some CMS vendors to demonstrate how they were using "Ajax" to improve system usability. Here is a short screencast with a representative sampling of what we saw, including:

• An auto-suggest feature in Umbraco
• Modifying a taxonomy in-place by Octane
• Updates without full page-refresh in Tridion
• A lightweight spell-checker from CrownPeak.

Ajax as a term and an approach has become mildly controversial, but remote scripting in general can make browser-based CMS interfaces less intrusive and more natural for authors. The sudden surge in interest represents, we think, genuine enthusiasm for more intuitive user experiences, and in the content management space, better usability remains long overdue...