The Secret Behind the Real Time Web; A Video From Inside FriendFeed

Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick / August 14, 2009 2:59 PM / 7 Comments

There's no end of talk about the benefits of the real time web these days, but what's going on behind the scenes? What do the nuts and bolts look like? Is it standards based code on scalable servers? Is it hyper-active little elves?

FriendFeed product manager Dan Hsiao and company intern Ross Miller released a short video today from deep inside the core of that innovative company that Facebook just paid $50m in cash and stocks to purchase. Now that FriendFeed has had its exit, the staff must feel comfortable opening up a little to the world and letting us see what really goes on there.

We thought it was elves, but this is probably the most scalable solution available. Just snap on more of the same infrastructure and you're ready to rock and roll.

Comments

Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts

I still have to admit I don't really get FF. I get Twitter. FF seems to just be an endless stream of noise. However if you use it for live search then I can see why Facebook brought it.

Posted by: Business Talk | August 14, 2009 4:14 PM

Now more and more people trend to use real time web, for data may be safer stored in web than in one's own PC.

Posted by: Jimmy | August 14, 2009 5:36 PM

Depends on who you're 'following' and the 'discussion groups' that you've joined - if controlled correctly they'll deliver info that's relevant to you. But if you're a casual user, it just doesn't make sense to use FF except as a commenting and link sharing tool that posts stuff out to your Twitter account.

Posted by: Matt | August 15, 2009 6:26 AM

Friendfeed is a cool company indeed.

Posted by: 悉尼 | August 15, 2009 10:12 PM

I still don't get how anyone is supposed to be able to digest all this information. I get the notion of real-time in the sense friendfeed is using it and I see the implementation and potential. But for me, it's a bit too much. People need a break sometimes, don't they?

Posted by: noam | August 16, 2009 2:16 AM

We don't get the message of the video.
What does it explain?

Posted by: LEADSExplorer.com | August 17, 2009 12:48 AM

The Secret Behind the Real Time Web; A Video From Inside FriendFeed http://bit.ly/23PpWC (funny) [from http://twitter.com/marshallk/statuses/3316846591]

Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | August 17, 2009 9:33 AM