This is good up to a point. If you have only a medium amount of CRUD-like data jn a basic structure in a single user context, this is fine. But when you get int

This is good up to a point. If you have only a medium amount of CRUD-like data jn a basic structure in a single user context, this is fine. But when you get into complex relationships, collaborative editing, and unique visual representations of data, this guess right out the window. The easiest example is probably also the first app to really sell dynamic web apps to the populace: Google Maps. There were meeting applications before Google Maps, and they operated much as you describe--through HTTP round trips--and they sucked. As a user, it was such a pain in the ass to wait for those things to rerender after every click. As a developer, it was such a pain in the ass to field those complaints from those users and know--barring some new invention in browser tech that nobody saw coming (XMLHttpRequest in Internet Explorer)--there really wasn't anything you could do about it. It's true that a lot of sites go over board with their interactions. But that's not the same thing as needing to ditch asynchronous requests completely.