To support ajax browser history functionality, we use the hash portion of the url. Unfortunately, that is not available on the server so we don't know what filters and sorts are applied. So we then have to package that info up as part of the XmlHttpRequest after the page has loaded.
Perhaps a 'default' state could be pushed out on the initial page load.
Then it could be 'cleaned' up with client side state info. Otherwise, that first page seems 'awkward'.You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.