A year later, Google GWT still in search of users

A Slashdot post by kdawson puts the trouble with the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) in perspective. After much fanfare when Google opensourced the AJAX-based toolkit a year and half ago, not much else has happened. And not many developers are using it. As kdawsons writes:

I have to admit that I am more than a little disappointed by its low profile in the UI community. I've been trolling their blog and have seen a few books out on it. But the one thing I'm not seeing is its use outside of Google.

Google sees the problem too and has launched a series on the GWT blog aimed at showing developers the ins and outs of GWT, how it works and how it can be used to build collaborative apps and sites.

But perhaps the biggest obstacle to GWT's widespread adoption is the nature of AJAX itself. To run properly, much is left to the browser, a notoriously insecure and feature-poor client. Current browsers need to be shored up in a variety of ways to make AJAX more palatable, especially to enterprise users. For example, the OpenAJAX Alliance recently published its Browser Feature Wishlist. It's interesting to note that better security for cross-site scripting came in at No. 2 on the list. While AJAX has done much to bolster functionality on social networking sites, perhaps enterprises are still waiting for better security and overall functionality before committing too many resources to it?