chat

Mibbit: IRC so easy, your mom could use it

Back before the days of Meebo Rooms and really great, full featured desktop instant-messaging applications there was IRC. Its group chat channels provided a place of entertainment, technical support, and one of the original vehicles for peer-to-peer file sharing.

Despite its utility, IRC tends to have a stigma as being difficult to get into, and a tool aimed mainly at advanced users. However, this weekend I've been using Mibbit (not to be confused with Ribbit), a delightfully simple approach to IRC that runs right in your browser--no special client required. For any newbie IRC users, this is a great way to get your foot in the door.

IRC nuts will be in love, as Mibbit lets you hop to all your usual servers and keep a hot list of your favorite channels to launch every time you sign on. Users can tweak the look and feel of Mibbit down to the coloring and fonts that are used.The entire experience is also tabbed, so depending on the width of your screen you can easily have 10 or more channels open and have several private conversations going without a hiccup. Even though it's Web based, the creators have built Mibbit with a generous amount of Ajax, meaning there will be no need to hit the refresh button to update the chat.

It also handles private messaging and ops controls similar to a desktop application with contextual menus that pop-down. It's a lot simpler than having to type in the right codes to set modes--something that traditionally makes IRC take a while to learn. Newbie users can also find rooms they might be interested in with a search tool that will let you see how many users are in each room as well as what IRC server it's on.

Site owners who want to stick Mibbit on their page can do so with some simple embed code that opens up straight to whatever channel they set. I've embedded one after the break. It's not as full featured as the version you can put on your site using an entire iFrame, but it should give you a taste. One thing you'll notice right off the bat is that it saves the last few lines of the room's conversation, which we've seen elsewhere on places such as Meebo Rooms and Yaplet--and can be immensely helpful in getting up to speed with what others are chatting about.

Hands-on: Facebook Chat

So far, Facebook Chat is indeed rolling out slowly. Of my 130-odd friends, only 5 show up Chat-ready, but more seem to be appearing as the hours tick by. At first, the limited list makes for an uncompelling experience, but as all Facebook users gain access, the experience will change. Imagine: stumbling across a old high school friend on Facebook and immediately engaging in conversation. (Or, worse, immediately finding all about your college ex's wonderful new life.)

The Facebook Chat Web app itself is easy and straightforward. Look to the bottom-right corner of an open Facebook browser window to … Read more

For Facebook Chat, a quiet and cautious Sunday debut

Facebook chose a Sunday afternoon, when much of the tech blogger corps was pleasantly enjoying real life (we can hope), to start rolling out its previously announced instant-messaging client. That's likely no coincidence: this is a major new feature for the social-networking site, and debuting it on a weekend afternoon probably ensured a smoother integration.

A Facebook employee told me in the days before the launch that it was "a big challenge" to get ready to roll out Facebook Chat to the site's 67 million members. Because of that, Facebook has opted for a gradual rollout … Read more

Why doesn't GM produce a 100 mpg car?

Mark your calendars for Friday, April 4, 2008, at 9 a.m. EDT, as GM's Bob Kruse will host a live chat on why automakers aren't making a 100 mpg car. The chat is open to the public at GMnext.com. Bob Kruse is GM's Executive Director of Global Vehicle Engineering Hybrids, Electric Vehicles and Batteries, so should have some insight on the issue. We applaud his bravery for putting himself out there.

Digsby open to all, adds Twitter

Digsby, the application that lets you view your instant-message, e-mail, and social-network accounts through one interface, opened up to the public on Thursday. Download Digsby for Windows from CNET Download.com.

The application also has support for popular micro-blogging application Twitter and allows real-time audio and video chat across IM networks through a partnership with TokBox. Oh, and it now offers inline spell check. WooHoo!

Digsby first hit the scene in early February. It's still in beta, but now you don't need an invitation to use it.

Other applications that enable you to manage multiple IM accounts include … Read more

Wireless VoIP headset breaks desktop chains

For all the advances made in Internet telephony over the last decade, the hardware end of the business has lagged woefully behind. All too often we've seen things like retro corded handsets or other bizarre devices that would seem to keep a caller hopelessly tethered to the desktop.

Headset makers are coming up with some solutions that problem, however, with wireless headsets. First we saw a pair by Creative Labs at CES in January, and now Logitech has debuted a similar product, a 2.4GHz wireless stereo headset developed specifically for VoIP calls.

Not only does the "ClearChat PC Wireless&… Read more

Orgoo adds video chat to repertoire

Orgoo, one of my favorite communication aggregation services, quietly launched a new video-chat service yesterday. It lets anyone create a text chat room with four spots for Web cam video and audio without any sort of registration or software besides Adobe's Flash plug-in. I gave it a spin earlier today and came away impressed.

Like the company's multiclient e-mail and chat mashup, which I checked out back in September, it's been designed with simplicity in mind and setup is about as easy as it gets. Users can privatize chat rooms simply by providing a password and can … Read more

Power Downloader talks to everyone

Power Downloader loves to chat with his friends, but he's got a problem. Kitty Kilobyte uses Yahoo Instant Messenger, and Candace Clicks loves Google Chat. Even his grandfather, the venerable Robert Baud, gets online to chat sometimes--but he uses AOL IM. Power Downloader knows it's a pain to use three different chat programs simultaneously, which is why he uses the multiprotocol chatware client Pidgin.

Pidgin is open source and free, but Power Downloader knows that doesn't mean it can't get the job done. Besides Google, Yahoo, and AOL chat protocols, Pidgin also supports MSN, ICQ, MySpaceIM, … Read more

Google Talk chatback: So bad even Google doesn't use it

Google yesterday announced in its Talkabout product blog that there's a new way to connect your site or social page visitors directly to you: a Google Talk chatback widget that instantly connects the visitor to your GTalk or Jabber IM client.

I like giving my readers a chance to connect with me directly in real-time, so I'm all about products like this. But the implementation of this little product is so lightweight and so lacking, that I understand perfectly why even the Google blog post announcing it shows only a picture of the widget instead of a live … Read more

Bored? Lonely? Talk to other bored, lonely souls on Cafe Jaxtr

I'm having a hard time appreciating Jaxtr's latest service, Cafe Jaxtr. It's a "talk network," where you can find people who are interested in certain topics, and then phone them to chat. If you have hobbies, and like people calling you out of the blue to talk about them, you can set up your own profile page so they can reach you.

The thing I don't get is why anyone would want this, but apparently I'm either too old or too antisocial to dig it. Konstantin Guericke, Jaxtr's chief executive officer, says … Read more