There are a number of similar services available and this is certainly something that should become commonly used over the next few months and years. Other ser

There are a number of similar services available and this is certainly something that should become commonly used over the next few months and years. Other services are PusherApp, PubNub, Kwwika, Hookbox and WebSync on demand. I'm sure that more services will also pop-up over the next few years. If you don't want to use a service you can always download, install and maintain your own comet server - but the whole point in a service such as this is that it removes the pain of doing it. I've also heard rumours that Google App Engine will be adding native support for this. I believe Google already use the technology for things like the real-time news JavaScript API.