A while back I posted a side rant dealing with the wide usage of AJAX. I made the comment that XMLHttp (the main technology behind AJAX) has been used with Microsoft products for quite sometime now. I recall using the feature my freshmen year in college while playing around MSXML Parser 3.0. I just ran into this post from Scobleizer (Robert Scoble) in which he describes the conversation he had with Jean Paoli, a co-author of XML and MSoftie with regards to AJAX. I specifically like this quote:

"My team invented XMLHttp in 1998" - Jean Paoli