Interestingly enough, the technique was used pretty heavily in a web-based BI software product that I wrote back in 1999. The UI was designed to be responsive and interactive, and I had to &#x27;invent&#x27; a lot of the AJAX-type features and techniques that were later well-known.  The problem was that most software back then (including this product) were &#x27;enterprise software&#x27;, limiting diffusion of ideas.