If fake secret agent Austin Powers were to use an RSS reader to keep up on his spy assignments and the whereabouts of bad guys, he might just use Backbase’s Ajax-based RSS reader - quite possibly the sexiest RSS reader out there. Certainly the sexiest I’ve seen, Now, if the headlines weren’t doubled up, it would be perfect.

In fact, Backbase’s RSS reader is a solid example of what their Ajax IDE with BXML (Backbase XML namespace)  can be used to develop. I used Backbase to mock up a tabbed interface to display multiple charts. It took me all of 5 minutes to do something that even in a rapid prototyping environment like Microsoft’s Visual Basic would have taken 20 minutes to do.

Now, once I build my engine in PHP to collect the necessary data (from someone’s API no less), generate the appropriate BXML code, and presto, I have my charting application. Next, I could throw in a Google Maps mashup, and I’ve beginnings of a GIS application.

Backbase’s RSS reader and their other demos are a fine example of the shape of things to come with Ajax RIA (Rich Internet Application).

UPDATE: The Backbase Ajax RSS reader is still in development. I tried it with IE 6, Mozilla 1.75, Firefox 1.5.0.1, Netscape 8.02, and Opera 8.52. Backbase doesn’t support Opera, and IE 6 doesn’t display the feed headlines.

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