Options for real-time web notifications and updates using Comet/XMPP vs WebSocket technologies on a Microsoft stack?

Question

I am scoping out the architectural options for a project that will render live updates (like Facebook) of user activities - logins, photos, etc. Two main UI components of t

Answer 1

SignalR wins.

Now that the product has matured it's been a breeze to implement. Essentially it offers what those $everal thou$and dollar packages cost, but don't have the marketing bucks to showcase some really cool implementations.

From a technical perspective you can accomplish the same things with SignalR. If your tech guys suggest otherwise, they probably don't know how to implement SignalR in a load-balanced environment (or even on its own).