Google has launched a beta of its Google Web Toolkit, promising to make it dramatically easier for developers to create Ajax applications.

"Ajax is really hard," Bruce Johnson, a lead programmer working on the project, said in a session at the JavaOne conference where the toolkit was officially unveiled.

"If you have tried it you will already know this. Download Google Web Toolkit and you will never have to worry about it," he joked.

Ajax allows developers to create online applications that pre-fetch data for increased interactivity and usability while cutting back on the number of pages that a user has to visit.

Examples of Ajax applications include Google Maps, Gmail and Flickr.

Current tools for creating Java applications require developers to manually enter JavaScript code, which makes for an error prone process, Johnson argued.

The Google application translates Java code into JavaScript, allowing developers to use existing development tools such as Eclipse or JProfiler.

"You don't have to become a JavaScript guru. You can spend more time on your application and less on this junk," said Johnson.

The application is available free of charge and currently supports Windows and Linux. It has been released under the Apache 2.0 open source licence.

The tool is in beta for now. Google did not provide a projected launch date, but promised to post frequent updates.

Developers that attended Google's presentation at the JavaOne conference responded enthusiastically.

"Every JavaOne that I come to, there is one talk that makes the conference worth going to. This is that talk," one delegate said during a question and answer session after Google's presentation.