yes, but pretty much any lib would be easier than manipulating elements with the standard browser APIs. I would say that $.ajax has very nice callbacks, error

yes, but pretty much any lib would be easier than manipulating elements with the standard browser APIs. I would say that $.ajax has very nice callbacks, error handling and cross-browser support, and I still think its simplicity is great compared to other ajax libs out there. But I still don't know if the "sky is the limit" for jQuery even in combination with Backbone. I mean you "can" probably build anything with this combo, but then again you can also build a 2000 page website in pure html - doesn't mean you should or its maintainable, testable, secure, etc.