Typically, when you reach the bottom of a search results page in a search engine like Google, you click "Next," wait five seconds and start from the top again.

With infinite scroll, the next results are retrieved automatically for you as you approach the bottom of the page. By the time you're there, the search results have already been appended to your current view. This technique utilizes AJAX and isn't trivial to implement, but it creates a customer experience that surprises people with its intuitiveness.

Placing results on separate pages isn't limited to search sites. Any content that is currently paged is a great target for infinite scroll: news articles, search results, forum posts and blog posts. Does your site require customers to click from page to page? If so, you may be giving them the opportunity to leave your site. Don't force your customers to ask for more content. Consider areas on your site where you can just give it to them.

Conclusion
There is a now wealth of technology that affords your web presence a more dynamic and rich interface. Providing this interface to your customers will deliver conversion, loyalty and engagement. While you can implement everything here, you have to judge if it's appropriate for your business and your customer's goals. But with a successful design and execution, you'll see a positive growth in your online presence.

Paul Irish is an emerging interactions consultant at Molecular.