I don't program in Node very much or in Go at all, but I think there are reasons to use Node that aren't "Node is fast". I think the "Node is fast" mantra was originally really meant as a comparison to Ruby/Python/PHP, not as a comparison to lower-level languages like Go. (I personally wish Node would just abandon speed as a selling point altogether--I think it'd lead to many fewer misunderstandings.)
In any case:
Node lets you reuse the same code on both the client and server. This can be very valuable if you're writing a JS-heavy webapp. In my experience, the most useful bits of code are the in-code data representation (models in an MVC world). Being able to have identical functionality client- and server-side can save a lot of time.
Node also has Socket.IO, which is very useful if you want to use websockets. (Go has a library for it, but it hasn't been updated in a long time.) The vast majority of the Node ecosystem revolves mostly around building interaction- and communication-heavy webapps. I don't know Go or its community at all, but I don't believe they have the same kind of single-minded focus that Node has. If you're trying to do the things Node does well, you will likely benefit from the community support.
There are, of course, many downsides to Node as well, but much as I dislike Javascript, I still think it's one of the best choices for writing highly interactive webapps right now.
Yeah, I agree, I'm using node right now to build a big web game and there are huge benefits to being able to run the same code on the sever and client.
I wouldn't use node if it wasn't for this because I don't particularly like javascript.
All my other games have used Python on the back end and you can really feel how clunky and painful javascript is when you have to switch between the two five times a day.
In any case:
Node lets you reuse the same code on both the client and server. This can be very valuable if you're writing a JS-heavy webapp. In my experience, the most useful bits of code are the in-code data representation (models in an MVC world). Being able to have identical functionality client- and server-side can save a lot of time.
Node also has Socket.IO, which is very useful if you want to use websockets. (Go has a library for it, but it hasn't been updated in a long time.) The vast majority of the Node ecosystem revolves mostly around building interaction- and communication-heavy webapps. I don't know Go or its community at all, but I don't believe they have the same kind of single-minded focus that Node has. If you're trying to do the things Node does well, you will likely benefit from the community support.
There are, of course, many downsides to Node as well, but much as I dislike Javascript, I still think it's one of the best choices for writing highly interactive webapps right now.