I don't see the value proposition of making (most) web apps/sites real-time. Sure, it makes sense for a chat app or a stock ticker, but blogging? A news site? E-commerce?
Maybe it's important that eBay is "real time" in the last 5 minutes of an auction, but the rest of the time, the vast majority of the content is relatively static. A seller might update the description of a listing a couple times over a two week auction, for example. And while it sounds great to immediately update my search results when a new listing goes live, in reality, I already have 40 pages of results to look through, and that listing that just went live 5 seconds ago probably isn't much more relevant than any of the others I'm sifting through.
I'm not opposed to client-heavy apps where it makes sense. When done well, it can create a really responsive user experience. Gmail is great at this; I have no desire for it to be "real time" -- not any more than it already is.
Do we really believe that one day cnn.com will be "real-time", with article updates and errata popping up inline as we read?
It's not that everything must be real-time. But, the stuff that doesn't need it has already been well-done for over a decade. The frontier of new possibilities (including as incremental enhancement to the old categories) tends to involve what's enabled by real-time.
For example, sprinkling in a little real-time surprise – like a notification that others have already responded to your recent work – can accelerate valuable interactions.
For example, in 'blogging' and 'news', both the original authors and active commenters appreciate no-reload indications of fresh comments, mentions, and inlinks. You can do a site without that – but you'll be missing out on features that users increasingly expect, and work to create new interesting content and engagement.
In 'e-commerce', a client-pulled site works and is well-understood, but adding live sales help, or indicators of limited deals being exhausted, can help close sales... so why not try it?
Even where the major cores of these markets work fine without real-time, the frontier of exploration and optimization uses greater game-like liveliness.
Maybe it's important that eBay is "real time" in the last 5 minutes of an auction, but the rest of the time, the vast majority of the content is relatively static. A seller might update the description of a listing a couple times over a two week auction, for example. And while it sounds great to immediately update my search results when a new listing goes live, in reality, I already have 40 pages of results to look through, and that listing that just went live 5 seconds ago probably isn't much more relevant than any of the others I'm sifting through.
I'm not opposed to client-heavy apps where it makes sense. When done well, it can create a really responsive user experience. Gmail is great at this; I have no desire for it to be "real time" -- not any more than it already is.
Do we really believe that one day cnn.com will be "real-time", with article updates and errata popping up inline as we read?