User:Afolentes/Web chat draft
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Web chat is a form of online chat that allows users of web sites to communicate with each other in real time. The key difference between web chat and the other types of chat is that web chats do not require users to install specialized chat software. This feature makes them more accessible to non-technical users.
[edit] Technology
The simplest web chats feature interfaces made from dynamically generated HTML pages. The downside to these types of chats is in their interactivity. Every message sent to an HTML chat requires a form submission and subsequent page load, which means that there is a waiting period between the time a user can send one message and the time they can begin to type the next one. Receiving messages also requires frequent page reloads, and which can cause delays, page flicker, and distracting browser activity.
A different approach using Java applets, which are graphical applications that can be embedded into web pages, bypasses these problems. Commonly used Java chat interfaces include DigiChat, Chatspace, Conference Room, and PJIRC, but there is a huge variety of Java chat systems in use on the web, many of them proprietary. Java chat applets suffer from the same disadvantages as other type of java applets, including long initial page loading times, user interfaces that can often complicated, and dependencies on Java Runtime Environments.
Newer web technologies, such as Ajax and Flash, have been used as the basis for some chat systems. They are hindered by incomplete support for networking in the underlying Javascript and Actionscript programming languages, and can't make use of efficient chat protocols. However, the trendiness of these technologies, as well as their strong support for graphical and usability features mean it is likely that these types of chats will become more widespread. The open-source project, phpFreeChat implements a full-featured AJAX chat. And the AOL acquired startup, Userplane, is a high profile company which provides flash-based chat and videoconferencing.
[edit] Uses
The easy accessibility of web chats allows them to be used by people who would not otherwise spend a lot of time chatting online. Companies use web chat to provide support to their customers, or sales information to their potential customers. Media outlets and specialized websites often hold special, event-oriented web chats, sometimes featuring celebrities or expert personalities.
Web chats can be found on sites known for completely different things, like a newspaper or a brand of liquor. They can also serve as gateways to other chat systems with aren't primarily web-based, like Instant messenger and IRC networks. Of course, there are also web chat sites, devoted particularly to web chat.
