from nodejs.org "Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices." That doesn't say to me "create large, complicated web apps with this". As a matter of fact, in my personal use node has showed its usefulness most when I am replacing small parts of my app that function slowly or poorly in some other way and moving toward a more modular approach.