OK, so I’m just going to go ahead and say it. Among a growing list of JavaScript libraries, JQuery is the de facto leader.

If you've developed websites for any length of time, you’ve inevitably run into a problem that’s best solved on the browser side with JavaScript. Before 2006, your next thought was usually, "Ugh, scripting." You had to worry about — and code for — cross-browser compatibility, tweaking the same process in different ways so the site could be viewed in Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla, et al.

Then along came JQuery.

First released by John Resig in January 2006, JQuery focuses on the interaction between JavaScript and HTML. By making use of Document Object Model (DOM) element selectors, events, CSS manipulation, effects and animation, plugin support, chaining commands, cross-browser compatibility and other features that make it incredibly efficient and effective in today's web-based application world, JQuery has become the developer’s darling.

We've embraced JQuery at Springbox, using it for a variety of internal and external projects. Microsoft has even announced that it will be shipping JQuery with future versions of Visual Studio (including full IntelliSense).

Now that’s love.