Easy Website Chat as a Sidebar or by Widgets

Webby Chat is an easy to install chat for blogs and websites. The chat window simply becomes installed by a code snippet and may be used at websites or blogs. To be installed at blogs a widget code is offered. A nice feature is the possibility to hide the sidebar. By this the chat has no need for additional space within a site.

The service is a work in progress. Whereas it is fully functionable, further features will be added. As it often happens, people are welcome to submit their feedback and to submit own ideas for new features. The service is free. Later on the a full version with more features might be offered for a fee.

Instant Website Chat with Business Opportunity

Gabbly is an instant chat application, that neither require an installation nor to join a network. The service has an ingenious simple way to put a chat onto a blog or website. Simply the url of a website needs to be added behind the url of the Gabbly homepage and a chat window will appear. For the emediablogger it looks like that: click gabbly.com/emediablogger.blogspot.com and you are welcome to the chat. By closing the chat window one becomes relocated to the original url of the website using the chat. Advanced features are embedded and private chat rooms.

There is a business opportunity by using the embedded chat and replacing the ad within the chat window by own adverts. Read more or try the chat at the Gabbly homepage.

CBS launched Interactive TV Showrooms with Chat

These are hot news at all and to those who are in the media business it is something like groundbreaking. CBS, one of the biggest media companies in the world, is the first who launched internet tv with advanced viewing features beyond the availability of tv at the internet at all. The feature is called Social Viewing Room. This Social Viewing Room do enable visitors to chat while watching tv online and enhance the tv experience online by being interactive. Unfortunately the program is only available to viewers in the US.

A couple of other big players in the reach of internet video (not tv) are offering similar social viewing and do start to enrich the tv experience. In the reach of showrooms there is Lycos Cinema (US only), a video on demand service with social viewing of movies, and YouTube with Streams for social viewing of internet video, which has been introduced at the post Interactive Video goes Mainstream. At tv there is a project by Yahoo aiming to enrich the viewing experience by bringing widgets to the tv screen.

A Chat Application with Visitor Visualization

eyebees is a cool chat tool that connects people on a website and visualizes visitors like the co browsing software of me.dium. Now, when the visitors are visualized they are able to click each other and to chat with each other. The eyebees software even shows at which page a visitor is browsing. By this they are able to talk about particular topics. To homepage owners and webmasters it is even a great tool to see where the buzz happens and to join a discussion. The installation happens by a simple integration of code.

Cbox Chat Widget for Blogs

This is another great widget to enrich a blog and to enable visitors to communicate. Cbox is a chat widget, that is suitable for blogs. The chat box enables visitors to leave a message and to talk with each other. There are two versions available. A free version suitable for blogs and small websites and a premium version with more comprehensive chat room features. Both versions are compared at a chart. The premium version is just 2 dollars a month and upgrading from the free ad supported version is possible at any time.

Stickam starts Broadcasting Support for Smartphones

One of the pioneers of live webcam communities has started to offer a live video application for video broadcasting using smartphones. It is Stickam, one of the largest live video networks. The service is available to members and linked at the left of the Live Streams Page. This is an interesting case, as Stickam is much larger than other live video services.

Mashable has an article about the launch with a comparison chart with a couple of live video services. It seems that the estimation and description as a niche market made at the first article about live video is true. Nevertheless I think about this as an emerging trend, that will arise with broader adoption of mobile broadband services, better knowledge and broader dissemination of smartphones. Another newcomer, zaplive.tv, that is not mentioned at the chart already has reasonable viewing stats.

Stickam is coming up with another effort to make their service a success. They have launched pay per live, which is in invite only mode up to now. This service will pay people for live streams of events.

Co Browsing beyond the Web Part 2

This is the second part of the co browsing software and tools series.

me.dium is a co browser software that visualizes website visitors like the introduced avatar software does. The software is primarily designed to surf the web with friends. These may become added manualy or by synchronization with other services and if enabled the online status of friends is displayed and the location. If friends are online it is easy to start a chat and to surf the web together by a click within the sidebar. Last but not least there are a couple of facebook tools integrated at the me.dium toolbar.

A new feature that has been added lately is the me.dium social search, which is still in alpha. There are two ways to find results, either by searching pages visited by others or by searching the web. More about this new social search engine is available by the faq.

Co Browsing beyond the Web

Co browsing or shared browsing is a way of social networking beyond the web. It is in some way a mixture of instant messaging and lifestreaming but either enhanced or different. By co browsing there are other issues shared than with lifestreams and messaging happens not only within a software but at websites in person by avatars and chat. By this it is a kind of immersive web experience.

weblin is a browser add on and software. The service describes itself as a 3d avatar chat and instant messaging. What makes it unique is that members may meet at third party websites with their avatars like within a virtual reality world. There are some typical vr features like an own inventory and even a virtual currency. The software integrates a couple of social networking features to share websites and to make posts to popular social media sites. A useful tool to meet others is the tagcloud of topsites. By the tagcloud it becomes easily recognized that weblin users do populate well known social media sites. For further information there are couple of videos available.

A similar service is itzle, which is in public beta. To use it there is no download necessary, just a plugin to install and a registration.

There are a couple of other services that will be introduced by upcoming posts. To keep connected you may subscribe to the newsfeed at the upper left.

Widgets for Live Chat and Communications

Some new widgets came up for live chat and communications. Even video chat on blogs is feasible.

The first one is SideSparks. It is a free chat application that enables live chat on a blog or website. What is great with this chat widget is its immersive web features, which enables chat with others at the blogosphere or the web beyond the own site. This feature is named tagged chat. It is tagging topics at participating sites to led people find interesting topics. Cross border features are great for sites with low traffic to populate an application.

Toksta is an instant messaging and video chat widget. It works by webcam and is designed for usage at social media sites. It is free and offering a business opportunity by revenue sharing of the advertising income.

Similar features are offered by mabber, a mobile connected instand messaging widget, meebo me with chat and Wengo Visio with audio and video. There are a couple of further services offering text messaging and phone widgets.

Rejaw, a new Micro Blogging Service

Rejaw is a new micro blogging service available for private and business usage. It combines messaging and chat, which means updates by shouts and whispers and real time conversations. Just as it happened first at Twitter actually all public updates are shown at the homepage.

Cool features are the integration of multimedia files at posts like images and videos and the integration with other social networks. As they have just started there are only a few tools listed at Rejaw Tools. For developpers there is an api and documentation at For Developpers. Further announcements are made at their blog, where a feed is available to stay informed about updates.