I want to

Talky chat room

Talky is a nice simple looking chatroom which works with video and sound, or just typed chat if you prefer. Very simple and straightforward, set up in seconds, nice functions such as mute and locking the room.

ChatWing for online chat

ChatWing is a product that I've reviewed before, but was asked to take another look at it since they've made a lot of changes. It's a nice site - you can create your own chatroom really quickly. New functionality includes the ability to include video straight in the chat box, as well as images and hotlinks. You can also password protect chat and force login and change styles. It also supports 9 different languages. I tried it out yesterday, and it's quite impressive. I shall be using it on my multimedia courses!

Tawea

Free chat from your browser with your friends on Facebook. This is basically Facebook chat in the wild - you can talk to them regardless of where you are since the app sits in the corner of the browser, just like normal Facebook chat. Unfortunately however, it only supports Chrome at the moment.

What irritates me is that their webpage grandly says 'Your browser doesn't support Tawea, when what they actually mean is that Tawea doesn't support my browser. A very big difference.

Responsa: Q&A for your website

via goresponsa.com

Responsa is a resource that allows you to place a widget on your website which allows your visitors to ask questions that you can then answer. Both free and fee versions.

Chatwing

Embed a chat box onto your site or your blog using Chatwing  Add in a couple of lines of code and you're done. Apparently you can earn revenue from the ads that are shown as well.

TodaysMeet

TodaysMeet helps you embrace the backchannel and connect with your audience in realtime. You can encourage the room to use the live stream to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback to tailor your presentation, sharpen your points, and address audience needs.

 

Related articles

• Backchannels (theatreteacher.wordpress.com)

Wireclub

Wireclub - Chat Rooms & Conversations This is an odd mix of Twitter, Quora, chat rooms, social networking and public hangouts. It's got about 3 million users, so it can't be all bad, but seriously - do you have time for another chat, social networky type of thing? No, I thought not, and neither do I. Sure that it's great - looks fun, but I don't have the time or inclination to register, and they've not really given me enough reason to do so.

SimpleMeet.me - Communication made unprecedentedly easy

via www.simplemeet.me

OK, I think this might be a good idea. Chatting on the phone, you want to swop more information, or chat longer. Rather than faff around with email addresses and so on, one of you goes to SimpleMeet and gets a code, gives it to the other and both can continue chatting. Nothing to download or install, free and unlimited number of people chatting in a room. The chat room is created instantly and you can swop files back and forth. You can also request a log of the chat as well. I looked into a room, but couldn't see any details on admin, private chat and so on, so I think I'd still prefer using things like Tinychat or Chatzy, but it's a interesting twist.

 

Related articles

• TinyChat iPhone App Lets You Video Chat With Up To 12 Facebook Friends (techcrunch.com)

Website Chat for Blogs

Envolve - for Media Sites. This resource allows you to install Facebook style chatting on your site via a social media bar type option at the bottom of your page.

BlahTherapy, Omegle & Chatroulette

BlahTherapy. This is one of a few similar resources. You log on, either as a listener or as a ventor, and then you just... chat with some random stranger. The idea according to their site is "Talking about your problems can help you to spot things that are causing problems in your life. A person with a different perspective on your situation can help you decide how to fix the problems you are having, and how to deal with the things you can’t fix" What itmeans in practice is that the first 3 people that you talk to want to discuss the short comings of their sex lives. Very dull indeed. I see no point to it at all.

Omegle doesn't have the 'therapy' pretensions of BlahTherapy - it's just a random chat room with either text or video. All my conversations started with the other random person asking 'asl?' short for age, sex, location and an answer of anything other than 'young blonde teen girl gagging for it' means you get cut off immediately while the sad man goes to find someone else (probably another equally sad man) to uh... discuss fantasies with. Avoid like the plague!

However, both of these are as nothing in comparison to Chatroulette, which you may have heard of. The idea here is that you link your webcam up and get partnered with some random person, who you can talk to, or click 'next' to move on. The first two that I got to see where actually webcammed groins, doing what sad male groins do. Afterwards followed click, next, click next. Terribly distressing, hateful and soulless. The internet at its very worst. Really, really horrible. It also made me feel horrible as well - this mindless clicking and dismissing of human beings one after another.