Update (2017): This post is outdated and shite. Please look elsewhere for better examples of similar apps. If you insist on seeing the naive code I wrote for the demo, there is a github link in the post.
(Open the chat in two or more browser windows/computers and check how fast the realtime updation is!)
Gmail chat, Facebook chat etc were implemented using a technique – rather a hack – called long polling[1]. It is the technique where the client initiates a request to the server. The server rather than returning the client with a response, keeps the connection open for a longer time. The server only returns to the client with a response when it (server) has something new for the client. The advantage of long polling over normal polling are reduced latency and saving from the overhead of sending too many short http requests. Continue Reading