Do Google Channel API Bi-Directional Sockets Exist?

In the docs for the Google Channel API it says:

"A channel is a one-way communication path through which the server sends updates to a specific Ja开发者_如何学JAVAvaScript client identified by its Client ID."

In their diagrams they show a client sending its state with a POST. This seems like it would be slow. Can the client communicate with the Channel API through a socket? Or must it send via POST?

POST is a message type indicator and message format.

Major edit after more research!

See Google API doc

Looks like messages from the browser to the server do indeed open new HTTP-level connections to send a POST message. Whether a new TCP/IP connection is needed or not depends on the browser's management of TCP connections--new browsers do a better job of this. See wikipedia HTTP persistent connection

Re: This seems like it would be slow. Usually the browser traffic is asymmetrical--with most of the data from the server to the browser. Comet will help that use case.

Re: Can the client communicate with the Channel API through a socket? Do you mean IP socket? Browsers don't have an api for that. Do you mean "web socket?" I'm 98% sure it wouldn't work to combine the two techniques. But you could try...