Google Maps is definitely a great example. I chose Gmail as my example, because from what I've read, that's where XHR was born, which is what I view as the birt

Google Maps is definitely a great example. I chose Gmail as my example, because from what I've read, that's where XHR was born, which is what I view as the birth of web apps. It's the idea that you don't have to pull an entirely new document from a server to update a small part of the view. I think that transforms the web from a simple document transfer system into something capable of behaving like an application.