Contents
What is the JavaScript Zeitgeist 2014?
Top 8 JavaScript Trending Topics of 2014
Conclusion
What is the JavaScript Zeitgeist 2014?
The JavaScript Zeitgeist is an initiative put together by the JS Classes site. The site keeps track of all searches performed by the users on the site. This allows gathering interesting statistics that can be used to extract trends about the interests of JavaScript developers.
This initiative is similar to Google Zeitgeist, but it is not based on searches done on Google. It is rather based on searches done by users on JS Classes. It is the same process of the PHP Zeitgeist initiative run by the PHP Classes site, except that this was started in 2011, the year after when the JS Classes was launched in 2010.
Top 8 JavaScript Trending Topics of 2014
The JavaScript Zeitgeist initiative aims to extract new topics of interest that became relevant in 2014, but were not as relevant in the previous years.
It works by building a ranking of all keywords used in searches performed by users during 2014. Then it builds a ranking of the top 100 keywords that become relevant in 2014 but were not listed in the rankings of the previous years.
This means that certain topics that were listed in the previous years will not appear in the 2014 ranking even though they continued to be relevant for many JavaScript developers.
Here follows a list of trending topics related with keywords that become relevant in 2014.
1. New Frameworks
New frameworks are always interesting for developers of any language. They are always seeking for existing frameworks that solve as many as possible the problems that they face in their development work.
The interest for new frameworks and plugins is denoted by searches for: dollar, dollar O, zepto, ext js project, jquery toolkit, etc..
2. HTML5: Multimedia and Mobile device support
Features specified in newer HTML5 specifications and mobile development are denoted by searches for: webrtc, JS Webcam, video cam kit, html5 player, detect mobile, mobile camera, multi image upload, gps track, player mp3, webrtc and chat and html5 audio mp3 player.
3. Visual Effects
Visual effects are yet another topic that continues to be of great interest of the JavaScript developers. In the more recent times, old fashioned technologies like animated GIF images became trendy again because they allow inserting animations in sites that only allow displaying user generated content in the form of image files.
The interest for other types of visual effects is also denoted by searches for: blur effect, rubber band scroll, css change, magnifier, water drop, turn pages, flipbook3, content slider.
4. Web Services APIs
Accessing popular APIs also continues to be of great interest from JavaScript developers. The interest for accessing Web service APIs is reflected on searches for: rest api, access token, linkedin, instagram and geocoded.
5. Security and Access Control
Security related topics always have concerned Web developers in general. This is denoted by searches for: Captcha Validation example, user registration login auth script, page restrictions for users, htaccess, iframe crossdomain, VPN detection and random password.
6. Text Processing
Text processing is something that most applications need one way or the other. The interest for text analysis and processing solutions is reflected on searches for: proper noun, lexer, upper, html to doc, etc..
7. Dynamic Loading
One type of interest that seems to be relatively new is for loading of resources dynamically, like JavaScript, CSS, images or even whole pages. This is probably a reflex that developers have been more and more interested in implementing more efficient solutions for performance related problems.
The interest for dynamic loading solutions is demonstrated by searches for: dynamic load, run an external program, loading page, require.js, pre load image, load javascript, form ajax, textarea ajax, etc..
8. MySQL
The interest for MySQL seems to be reflected on searches for: MySQL from JavaScript, Accessing MySQL from JavaScript using HTTP and JSON, user registration login auth mysql, dbf2mysql, etc..
Conclusion
The JavaScript Zeitgeist initiative continues to help revealing interesting trends among JavaScript developers.
Despite the groups of topics seem to be more or less the same as in previous years, every year the specific searches related with each topic are always interesting to understand what are the trends in terms of technologies and methods being used now by JavaScript developers.
Please post a comment if you would like to denote other trends in the JavaScript world not listed in this article.
