Modify Query String Without new HTTP Request

The best solution is by using hash. As Curt stated, #! is the way you tell Google that this is a webapp but if you don't need crawling, don't worry.

You can use then something like this:

var hash = location.hash; //or window.location.hash
hash = hash.replace(/^.*#!/, ''); // strip #! from the values
//do something with the values you got stored in `hash` var

If you need other things to happen, like everytime the hash changes, you do something, you can bind the 'hashchange' event.For example:

I use jQuery hashchange event by Ben Alman for that:

$(window).hashchange( function(){
    var hash = location.hash;
    hash = hash.replace(/^.*#!/, '');

    // do something with 'hash' everytime it changes
    // EXAMPLE:Set the page title based on the hash.
    document.title = 'The hash is '+hash+'.';

    return false; //this prevent browser from following the # after doing what you wanted
});