What is the significance of Silverlight? That is the question everyone is trying to figure out right now. A simple definition of Silverlight is a new web technology that is:

1. Cross-browser
2. Cross-platform
3. Renders XAML
4. Exposes an API (javascript in 1.0; CLR in 1.1)

There's also a lot of discussion of "rich media". Some sites that are media intensive are already doing some cool things with it (like MLB – Major League Baseball – at www.mlb.com. Look at their main highlight video panel and control).

Rocky Lhotka postulates that Ajax is the end of the web as we know it today, and that Silverlight represents the "real" web 2.0 of the future. Is he right? He just may be. This technology train is just starting to gather speed.