When the Web 2.0 and Ajax era kicked the best of the best in programmers started creating scripts of various kinds. One of these scripts called Lightbox has one of the biggest impact I have notice, it is well customizable to fit various formats, such as images, videos, and even maps.

To start off I will post a link to the original source of the script, I think.

Lightbox

The object of this script is simple, when a user clicks on a thumbnail version of an image it does smooth transition of a pop up image that is larger, usually the original size, and when the user clicks either the close button or outside the image it closes back again. The original script is just run my javascript and some CSS, but as the variation of this script come out it requires various ajax platforms such as JQuery, MOO, YUI in order for it to be run. The Various lightbox scripts will tell you what platform you need if any.

Now for the Fun part, although there are various versions of the original lightbox script, I will only discuss the different idea's that can be done with the lightbox script.

Videobox

This version of the lightbox script is used to show videos, so when a user clicks on the thumbnail image of the video it will kick in the lightbox script and show the video from various places such as youtube. Although I am not sure about the thumbnail I don't it gets generated so you might have to take a snapshot of it. This script requires you to have Mootools installed on your hosting, and some other stuff. You will find all the information on thee site here.

Google Maps

Now this script that uses lights loads up google maps of specific locations, sadly its not well documented and so you have to look at the source code to figure it out, but if your programmer savy enough it should be easy to figure out. Here are two different versions of this script.

Script #1
Script #2

Now if you wish to see if more examples of how this lightbox script can be done, check out this link to the largest index of ajax scripts I have ever found., Now that you got a taste of Web 2.0 is about now you can implement stuff like light on to your site.