Google Chrome's native client is soon to be released. http://blog.chromium.org/2011/02/native-client-getting-ready-for-takeoff.html Would this allow node.js to be run within the browser enabling distributed applications to communicate with each other without having to go through the server?
Nowadays there are several solutions that allow you to run some Node modules in chrome. Have a look on these links:
node-webkit is an app runtime based on Chromium and node.js.
Node-chromify, Node.js in Chrome.
Screen cast from google about NodeJS in Chrome packaged apps.