Node.js is a new platform and is still evolving (not even a version 1.0 has been released yet), but even in its infancy, it is probably one of the most popular platforms on the Web. It is already powering a large number of popular services. Let us take a look at what makes Node.js such a tempting and popular proposition.
The first and foremost advantage of Node.js is JavaScript. If you know and code in JavaScript regularly, you already know most of Node.js; all that's left to learn can be thought of as APIs and best practices.
Node.js—built over Google Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine—allows entire applications to be written using JavaScript. We have already been writing frontends in JavaScript; with Node.js, we write the backend as well, in the same language that we have honed our skills on and grown to love. It saves every frontend developer from learning one more language or relying on some other developer to expose the RESTful APIs required by their application...