Is “Asynchronous” Really Used in Ajax?

Great question posed by Ajaxian.

Although I find myself using Ajax primarily for “Periodic Refresh” (e.g., instant messaging-like polling), my main usage to date has been to send data to or effect change on the server. Not quite “fire-and-forget”, but more “fire-and-when-the-server-acknowledges-then-update-the-screen-acccordingly”.