Tornado

An open-source Python web framework developed by FriendFeed and later open-sourced by Facebook, designed for building high-performance, real-time web applications.

When Facebook acquired FriendFeed, it wasn't just interested in the social network itself, but in FriendFeed's brilliant engineers and cutting-edge technology. Among these technologies was 'Tornado,' a Python web framework that formed the backbone of FriendFeed's real-time update infrastructure.

Following the acquisition, Facebook generously open-sourced Tornado, making this powerful framework available to developers and companies worldwide. This move enabled others to build their own real-time, high-performance web applications. Tornado is particularly renowned for its asynchronous architecture, allowing it to handle thousands of concurrent connections. This makes it an ideal choice for applications like chat services, live news feeds, and other dynamic web services where responsiveness and scalability are paramount. FriendFeed's technological legacy, through Tornado, has significantly contributed to the evolution of the internet.