title: Ajax requests/responses: how to make them lightning fast?
body: <p>I came across a site that does something very similar to Google Suggest. When you type in 2 characters in the search box (e.g. "ca" if you are searching for "canon" products), it makes 4 Ajax requests. Each request seems to get done in less than 125ms. I've casually observed Google Suggest taking 500ms or longer.</p>
  
  <p>In either case, both sites are fast. <strong>What are the general concepts/strategies that should be followed in order to get super-fast requests/responses?</strong> Thanks.</p>
  
  <p>EDIT 1: by the way, I plan to implement an autocomplete feature for an e-commerce site search where it 1.) provides search suggestion based on what is being typed and 2.) a list of potential products matches based on what has been typed so far. I'm trying for something similar to SLI Systems search (see <a href="http://www.bedbathstore.com/">http://www.bedbathstore.com/</a> for example).</p>