7 ms·

Facebook is showing a real time like count on Mark Zuckerberg's status updates

57 points by schlichtm 15y ago

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
indigoviolet 15y ago
All likes and comments on Facebook will live update if you're actively using the page.
william42 15y ago
Seems buggy to me; it doesn't register my like and unlike very well.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
charliesome 15y ago
It surprises me that they aren't using WebSockets for this. That page fired off over 200 AJAX requests in a single minute.
ahupp 15y ago
This has worked for a while, it's just much more apparent on his posts: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=496077348919 https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=496077348919
- schlichtm 15y ago
  ahupp - That is referencing the real time comments (where comments are pushed to you without reloading the page). This is different. Facebook is showing the actual like count change in real time. This is fantastic feedback for big brands.
  - aristus 15y ago
    You might want to check the credits at the end of the post ahupp linked to. :)
  - drivebyacct2 15y ago
    "big brands"? What brand is getting enough traffic to justify the overhead of truly realtime like updates, besides Facebook or Zuck?
staunch 15y ago
Wolfram Alpha shows 9993 days. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=May+14%2C+1984+to+today+in+days http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=May+14%2C+1984+to+today...
- orijing 15y ago
  That's wrong if you do the math yourself. Try this: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Sept+30%2C+1984+to+today+in+days http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Sept+30%2C+1984+to+toda... It says 9855 days, which is 365 * (2011 - 1984), which is obviously not right and missing leap years.
  - abduhl 15y ago
    The correct formula that Wolfram should be using here is floor((cur_yr - old_yr)x365.25), assuming you are interested only in the recent past where the 365.25 holds true. As an aside, floor(365.25x(2011-1984))+138 gives 9,999 days elapsed which would make today the 10,000th day, as stated by Zuckerberg. EDIT: this formula only works when you begin on a day after a leap day during a leap year, thanks hennypenny
    - hennypenny 15y ago
      Your formula doesn't work. There have been 7 leap days including 1984. The date of the leap day is relevant to your formula because if he were born on Jan 1 there would be a difference in your result. Also, May 14 plus 138 days would have been September 29, not Sept 30.
      - abduhl 15y ago
        This has to do with when you take the starting point for the day I would assume. Also, I got the number from Wolfram: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=May+14+1984+to+September+30+1984+in+days http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=May+14+1984+to+Septembe...
        15y ago
kalleboo 15y ago
The like updates are timed improperly and the number keeps going down and then up and then down. I got a lot of shit at work for a similar bug on a JS ticker, I'm glad I'm not the only one!
- nicholasreed 15y ago
  Could this be because some people (at 120,000 now) are unliking and dropping the count for a moment?
  - dreamux 15y ago
    More likely a propagation/aggregation issue.
  - jarin 15y ago
    It's probably just because it's firing off a ton of ajax requests and just displaying the results as they come back, regardless of the request order.
guelo 15y ago
Doing a little network sniffing this seems incredibly inefficient. Apparently the page is polling the server up to 8 times per second and getting back a 7-800 byte chunk of Javascript. The infrastructure to support this at Facebook's scale is mind boggling. This is the kind of stuff that Websockets was invented for.
- kwamenum86 15y ago
  web sockets or, in most browsers, long polling. long polling is easy to implement and they must already have the infrastructure built out since they have chat...silly Facebook. [edit] just took a closer look at the network activity. this really is the worst way to implement this feature. polling several times a second, sending back a bloated response, and updating much more of the DOM than necessary. this is just terribly hacky. probably done very quickly at the last minute though.
  - wgx 15y ago
    Zuck maybe wrote it himself for fun?
    - pork 15y ago
      Stop kidding yourself.
      - wgx 15y ago
        Amused that my comment was down-voted when It's widely known that Mark would work 'hands on' on the codebase [1] as recently as last year. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/14/apparently-mark-zuckerberg-still-writes-code/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/14/apparently-mark-zuckerberg-...
        datasink 15y ago
        http://kottke.org/11/09/zucks-gonna-write-code http://kottke.org/11/09/zucks-gonna-write-code This excerpted anecdote indicates it was mainly a leadership gesture to rally the troops. Still pretty cool that he'd bother, though.
DiabloD3 15y ago
I don't have a Facebook account, does it only work for logged in people?
- chunkyslink 15y ago
  Probably, I don't click anything with Facebook in the URL.
cellis 15y ago
If they keep adding people at the rate they are, in 10 years they'll have wired together the entire human race. I'm not sure if I should be scared or thrilled or skeptical.
- hack_edu 15y ago
  But they won't and can't. These sorts of hyperbole are getting really old.
- jarin 15y ago
  In 20 years, they'll have quadruple the number of people that have ever lived!
NHQ 15y ago
way to toast yrself zuck
zem 15y ago
cute little easter egg
rehashed 15y ago
It has done the exact same thing for my friends posts for a looooong time. This isn;t specific to his account, its just more prominent because there are more people "liking" it.
plainOldText 15y ago
On my client if js is disabled then yes the count is "real time" otherwise nothing happens.

57 points by schlichtm 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

indigoviolet 15y ago

All likes and comments on Facebook will live update if you're actively using the page.

william42 15y ago

Seems buggy to me; it doesn't register my like and unlike very well.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

charliesome 15y ago

It surprises me that they aren't using WebSockets for this. That page fired off over 200 AJAX requests in a single minute.

ahupp 15y ago

This has worked for a while, it's just much more apparent on his posts: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=496077348919 https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=496077348919

schlichtm 15y ago
ahupp - That is referencing the real time comments (where comments are pushed to you without reloading the page). This is different. Facebook is showing the actual like count change in real time. This is fantastic feedback for big brands.
- aristus 15y ago
  You might want to check the credits at the end of the post ahupp linked to. :)
- drivebyacct2 15y ago
  "big brands"? What brand is getting enough traffic to justify the overhead of truly realtime like updates, besides Facebook or Zuck?

staunch 15y ago

Wolfram Alpha shows 9993 days. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=May+14%2C+1984+to+today+in+days http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=May+14%2C+1984+to+today...

orijing 15y ago
That's wrong if you do the math yourself. Try this: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Sept+30%2C+1984+to+today+in+days http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Sept+30%2C+1984+to+toda... It says 9855 days, which is 365 * (2011 - 1984), which is obviously not right and missing leap years.
- abduhl 15y ago
  The correct formula that Wolfram should be using here is floor((cur_yr - old_yr)x365.25), assuming you are interested only in the recent past where the 365.25 holds true. As an aside, floor(365.25x(2011-1984))+138 gives 9,999 days elapsed which would make today the 10,000th day, as stated by Zuckerberg. EDIT: this formula only works when you begin on a day after a leap day during a leap year, thanks hennypenny
  - hennypenny 15y ago
    Your formula doesn't work. There have been 7 leap days including 1984. The date of the leap day is relevant to your formula because if he were born on Jan 1 there would be a difference in your result. Also, May 14 plus 138 days would have been September 29, not Sept 30.
    - abduhl 15y ago
      This has to do with when you take the starting point for the day I would assume. Also, I got the number from Wolfram: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=May+14+1984+to+September+30+1984+in+days http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=May+14+1984+to+Septembe...
      - 15y ago

kalleboo 15y ago

The like updates are timed improperly and the number keeps going down and then up and then down. I got a lot of shit at work for a similar bug on a JS ticker, I'm glad I'm not the only one!

nicholasreed 15y ago
Could this be because some people (at 120,000 now) are unliking and dropping the count for a moment?
- dreamux 15y ago
  More likely a propagation/aggregation issue.
- jarin 15y ago
  It's probably just because it's firing off a ton of ajax requests and just displaying the results as they come back, regardless of the request order.

guelo 15y ago

Doing a little network sniffing this seems incredibly inefficient. Apparently the page is polling the server up to 8 times per second and getting back a 7-800 byte chunk of Javascript. The infrastructure to support this at Facebook's scale is mind boggling. This is the kind of stuff that Websockets was invented for.

kwamenum86 15y ago
web sockets or, in most browsers, long polling. long polling is easy to implement and they must already have the infrastructure built out since they have chat...silly Facebook. [edit] just took a closer look at the network activity. this really is the worst way to implement this feature. polling several times a second, sending back a bloated response, and updating much more of the DOM than necessary. this is just terribly hacky. probably done very quickly at the last minute though.
- wgx 15y ago
  Zuck maybe wrote it himself for fun?
  - pork 15y ago
    Stop kidding yourself.
    - wgx 15y ago
      Amused that my comment was down-voted when It's widely known that Mark would work 'hands on' on the codebase [1] as recently as last year. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/14/apparently-mark-zuckerberg-still-writes-code/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/14/apparently-mark-zuckerberg-...
      - datasink 15y ago
        http://kottke.org/11/09/zucks-gonna-write-code http://kottke.org/11/09/zucks-gonna-write-code This excerpted anecdote indicates it was mainly a leadership gesture to rally the troops. Still pretty cool that he'd bother, though.

DiabloD3 15y ago

I don't have a Facebook account, does it only work for logged in people?

chunkyslink 15y ago
Probably, I don't click anything with Facebook in the URL.

cellis 15y ago

If they keep adding people at the rate they are, in 10 years they'll have wired together the entire human race. I'm not sure if I should be scared or thrilled or skeptical.

hack_edu 15y ago
But they won't and can't. These sorts of hyperbole are getting really old.
jarin 15y ago
In 20 years, they'll have quadruple the number of people that have ever lived!

NHQ 15y ago

way to toast yrself zuck

zem 15y ago

cute little easter egg

rehashed 15y ago

It has done the exact same thing for my friends posts for a looooong time. This isn;t specific to his account, its just more prominent because there are more people "liking" it.

plainOldText 15y ago

On my client if js is disabled then yes the count is "real time" otherwise nothing happens.