A Note about Swoopo’s Website and Lag Times

Sometimes Swoopo users report lag time in the auction clock. It will appear as if the clock has paused at a specific time (8 seconds, say) and then suddenly it will resume again at a lower time (like 4 seconds). This lag time is frustrating for most users and Swoopo does their best to prevent it. As mentioned before on the post regarding the things to begin with when bidding, you can follow the technical recommendations to help reduce lag time. Unfortunately though, even with the best set-up, lag time will still sometimes occur.

Swoopo has lag issues because they are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with a web application and also, they are processing lots of bids and bidders all in real-time. If you compare their site to eBay, for instance, you’ll notice they allow you to bid in one simple click. When you do that, they need to process your bid, calculate the new total and auction time and send this information to every user within a fraction of a second. So it’s a very complicated stuff.

You can actually use lag to your advantage, however. Using the BidButler, I’ll explain how this tool is “server side” and using it in your auction strategy will give you the advantage and sort of cheating Swoopo by having it on your side when bidding.