I’m continually amazed by the breadth of jQuery. Most websites and most smartphone apps, without jQuery I don’t think they would work. It’s one of the important layers that makes a boring HTML webpage into a software application. jQuery was originally very useful bringing cross-platform support to Javascript (every browser has its own quirks) but jQuery is also a platform in itself now for building user interfaces. If you want a lightbox, there’s a half-dozen jQuery lightbox plugins to choose from. Or you can create your own lightbox using jQuery. Infinite scrolling, lazy loading, masonry layouts, it’s all possible with jQuery. For more mundane tasks, you might use jQuery to set image attributes, something I was working on yesterday for a Pinterest widget. As we use our favorite apps, tap tap tap, it’s easy to dismiss how this all works. A menu slides over and it seems like magic, but that was probably a jQuery effect. PS: If you didn’t know, John Resig created jQuery.