How does this website continue playing music when the URL is changed?

the source code says window.pagetype = “ajaxy”

I don’t know anything about writing script or whatnot but is that the same as what you referenced above making this sort of thing possible?

There is a jQuery plugin that does this without using a hash. Here is a example.

I found yet another example of this, but I still can’t find how the browser allows the URL in the address bar to change but not the actual address of the page.

HTML5 has a history API that’s part of the standard. It looks like the second example is using that…

From the “yet another example”...

if (typeof history.pushState === ‘undefined’) {
state.className = ‘fail’;
} else {
state.className = ‘success’;
state.innerHTML = ‘HTML5 History API available’;
}

and later

history.pushState(data[title], title, event.target.href);

Here’s a walkthrough that’s pretty good.

Manipulating History for Fun & Profit

@johnpowell‘s answer is how soundowl actually does theirs. From what I can tell it uses jQuery to extend the functionality to older browsers that don’t have the latest HTML5 hotness.

Wow! That’s an extremely informative article that seems to answer all my questions. Essentially the part I was missing turned out to be a simple line of code using the new API.

history.pushState(null, null, “u/r/l”);

I also see why the jQuery plugin is used: “If your web application fails in browsers with scripting disabled, Jakob Nielsen’s dog will come to your house and shit on your carpet.”