One of the building blocks of the Internet, chat continues to evolve and change in new and interesting ways offering users like us new functionality and new ways to create communities in cyberspace.  

First, one note. All of the links in this article lead off the Road Runner site.  We take no responsibility for what you find there. Parents should be aware that appropriate diligence should be exercised for children who visit chat rooms.

Chat Channels in mIRC - A little confusing

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) has long been a core Internet component. IRC is the traditional text-based chat we’re all familiar with. Using  IRC client software, like mIRC for PC or IRCle for Mac, you can instantly be in touch with thousands of people around the world with similar interests for conversation, debate, or other discourse. IRC clients offer a lot of options and they can be a little daunting to the novice user.

Talk City's Java Powered Web Chat.  Easy to use 

Many web sites also offer Java or other web based chat. Yahoo Chat, MSN, Go, Talk City and Lycos are among them. Web based chat is a lot simpler than configuring an IRC client, and there is no need to download software, but you’re still limited to traditional text. Some sites will ask you to register, while others will just let you jump right in. Another advantage to web-based chat is they usually work cross platform, meaning they’re just as functional on PC’s and Macs.

The Gooey Box sits on top of your browser and shows other Gooey Users  visiting the same web site

Others have taken the chat concept and implemented it in different ways. A company called Hypernix has created Gooey. Gooey will show you other Gooey users that are on the same web site you are on right now, so you may initiate a conversation about the web site topic. Gooey's success ultimately depends on how big it’s user base becomes and how much chat activity actually occurs within their interface. The "chat on any web page" idea is growing though, and other people are developing their own products.

Microsoft Chat's Cartoon Interface 

Other systems use a more graphical interface. Microsoft Chat 2.5 uses a cartoon motif, where participants are represented by comic characters and their chat is displayed as word balloons as in a comic strip. You select how you are represented within the chat space and you can see others. The free software from Microsoft also works with IRC and uses IRC protocols.

Some people think that voice is the wave of the future in chat, particularly as high-speed Internet connections, like Road Runner, become more widely available and the ‘net can handle the larger volume of traffic required. All you need is a sound card and a microphone and you can be having discussions with people all over the world with some of the voice based chat sites like Hear Me.

The Hear Me Interface.  Voice Chat 

Hear Me is an interesting story. Originally Mpath created Mplayer, a multi-player gaming service. Within the proprietary Mplayer front end software, Mplayer developed real-time voice chat, so you could chat with your opponents or team mates while you were in the lobby configuring the games you were getting ready to play. They found however that people were sitting in their game lobbies just talking. Now they’ve created Hear Me, a site using that same technology for real-time voice chat. Just download the front-end software, create a free account and away you go.

ICQ The first Internet Pager

Paging is another offshoot. You can send a real time instant message to your pal, or your kid, or your grandma while you are both on the Internet and start your own private conversation. Pager technology has grown a lot from the days when Mirabilis created their ICQ program.

Now you have at least three choices and probably more. The problem is that users of each system can’t reliably talk with one another. America On-Line bought the company that developed ICQ a few months ago. But AOL has their own, competing product, AOL Instant Messenger(AIM). AIM grew out of the instant messaging and buddy list functions available within the proprietary AOL software. The beauty of AIM is that you can still communicate with people on AOL, even though you are using Road Runner or another Internet Service Provider. It works pretty much the same as AOL’s buddy lists.

The third paging software is from Microsoft. Microsoft originally built their MSN Messenger so that it could tie into AOL’s Instant Messenger and communicate with those people. AOL had a problem with exactly how Microsoft was doing that and changed their service so MSN users couldn’t communicate with AIM users. From there it gets more complex as lawyers are now involved. For you and me, what it means is we’ll probably use the one most of our friends are using. If our friends split on the issue, we can more than one.

There are probably a hundred other new developments in chat and instant Internet communication that we missed here, but these are the most-used and the most known.  If there's one that has you particularly excited, let us know. One thing we can be sure of is that just like everything else on the Internet, the way we chat will be forever evolving as bright people find newer and better ways to communicate with newer and better technology.