I said in the video preview that Mailroom 2 is a JavaScript application (or a “JSApp” as I sometimes call it.) When I said that, some of you probably thought what I meant was this thing called “Ajax”, but I didn’t. JSApps are far more revolutionary that Ajax. In fact, I think they are going to be a major factor in the adoption of web apps in the future.

Let me explain why.

While Ajax’d apps can make sites a lot easier to work with, JavaScript applications go beyond mere web page and turn the web browser into a full-fledged client. JSApps can be faster, more dynamic, more powerful, and vastly easier to use.

Let’s take one of the best designed Ajax web apps on the web as an example. Basecamp is a great web app for managing projects. You can write messages, add todos, milestone and more. Even though Basecamp uses some Ajax to add some neat effects to their pages (especially when working on Todos), you still will spend a lot of time waiting for pages to load when you use this application.

Each click…to visit…a message…or a task…requires…waiting…for a page…to load.

Even with a fast server, the simple fact is that waiting for pages to load creates dead cycles. It interrupts your flow of thought, taking you out of control and putting you at the mercy of your wifi connection, big telcos, our servers, and other customers to decide how fast you get to work.

Up until now, this has been a simple fact of the web. If you want something more rich, you would often resort to technologies like Flash that are not as native and require plugins. Thankfully, modern browsers running modern JavaScript engines have become so commonplace that its finally OK to make JavaScript a part of your product requirements and that is making a new type of product possible: the JavaScript Application.

A JavaScript application like Mailroom does away with the whole page loading concept altogether. Instead, you load your page just once when you first visit Mailroom. After that, everything is done right there in your browser.

Unlike an Ajaxed app where JavaScript is used to enhance a page-based experience, the JavaScript application is driven almost entirely by the JS on a single page. It is leaps and bounds faster and richer to boot.

Thanks to caching and other behind-the-scenes work, in fact, it is possible to almost entirely decouple your client experience from our server. That means that as you use Mailroom, you won’t spend much time waiting on data to go over to the internet. We do that all in the background so you can keep working.

Mailroom is certainly not the only JavaScript Application out there. Zimbra have been doing this for years longer than we have. But we do hope that Mailroom will be a shining example of what JSApps are capable of, and why we think they are the future of web apps for business in general.

Mailroom 2 is almost ready. I can’t wait. Really. It’s like being in the 9th month of a pregnancy without the pain and bloating.