title: How to implement real time updates in ASP.NET
body: <p>I have seen several websites that show you a real time update of what's going on in the database. An example could be</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>A stock ticker website that shows stock prices in real time</li>
  <li>Showing data like "What other users are searching for currently.."</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I'd assume this would involve some kind of polling mechanism that queries the database every few seconds and renders it on a web page. But the thought scares me when I think about it from the performance standpoint. </p>
  
  <p>In an application I am working on, I need to display the real time status of an operation that a user has submitted. Users wait for the process to be completed. As and when an operation is completed, the status is updated by another process (could be a windows service). Should I query the database every second to get the updated status?</p>