
Hello Chrome and Firefox, meet serverless WebRTC - jamest
https://github.com/firebase/gupshup/
======
jamest
[OP / Firebase founder here] We certainly aren't trying to be disingenuous
with the 'serverless' title. The piece of code on GitHub allows you to build
WebRTC functionality that doesn't require you to run a signaling sever. (or,
any server if you want to go that far) Though, yes, we still run and maintain
the Firebase servers to make this happen.

Sorry for any confusion. I'll add some explicit language in the README on
GitHub.

Thanks for checking out the code.

~~~
ozten
Thanks for clarifying!

WebRTC is really exciting from a P2P perspective, which is why I and others
are sensitive about the terminology.

This is a really cool use of Firebase, to have zero discovery servers to
deploy for a working WebRTC setup.

We're headed into so many new fronts with web based technologies, that the
terminology can get muddled depending on your perspective.

Keep rocking it!

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songzme
Firebase is useful here because you can use it to handle state changes for
iceCandidates and not worry about using your own server. You can also store
data with Firebase API. By 'serverless', OP means that you don't need to have
your own server/database and can host your app as a standalone html file,
letting firebase take care of your backend.

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cakoose
It's not severless. Jerks.

~~~
crabasa
It is serverless in the sense that _you_ don't need to have or maintain a
server. I think this is consistent with how most people use the term.

~~~
jmillikin
I don't maintain HN, but that doesn't mean HN is serverless.

~~~
crabasa
Here are some other stories that use the term serverless:

[http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=Ser...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=Serverless&start=0)

I feel like it's a term that has a generally well-understood meaning. What
other term would you prefer?

~~~
svachalek
What the heck -- how have we redefined "serverless" to mean anything but
"without servers"? I second the use of "hosted" or "hosted free as in beer" or
pretty much any marketing term we want to apply to this as long as it doesn't
use words that mean the opposite of reality.

~~~
anant
Peer-to-peer systems still use DNS "servers". Pure P2P WebRTC systems still
need STUN "servers". In fact, one of the peers in a P2P system could also be
considered a server.

"Serverless" as you define it would describe nothing in existence today. I
think the way most people perceive the term is simply to mean reliance on
servers that you don't have to build and run.

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octatone2
By serverless, I expected peer to peer without a server. This still uses a
server.

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krmmalik
Curious. What made you choose an indian word for the project?

~~~
anant
Nothing in particular other than I'm from India :)

When naming projects I usually look to the English thesaurus first, failing
which I'll use a Hindi or Tamil word.

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rorrr
Not serverless. Requires firebase.

