Question

I know how to change content of a page using AJAX and remote loading of content. However, take a look at UStream’s new layout. Click on any video, and not only does the content change without changing the page itself… but the entire URL changes as well. How is this done?

I know how to do it using the hashtag in a URL, and using JavaScript to detect when the location’s hash value has changed. For example, site.com/#!/profile to site.com/#!/settings. Any value after the #! part is loaded remotely.

But UStream doesn’t use the hash symbol at all. How is this accomplished? What voodoo is at work here?

Answer 1

You’re seeing the HTML5 History API.