I think what is exciting about the facebook chat development is that it takes the socilization on a major soical network from past tense ( inbox, feeds, wall posts etc ) to a realtime interaction level.
I'm a huge fan of IRC. I got my start in basic scripting in IRC communities, started using Linux thanks to what I learned in IRC, and so forth. IRC is second nature to me when it comes to the web.
I think the issue is mostly that interacting with IRC has never grown up. Registration and daily use requires obscure syntax that the every-day chatter just isn't going to want to learn.
It may be superior technology, and it'll continue to thrive as a means of support for communities I imagine. But you're right. IRC (and basic web forums) WERE the social web before the social web. And now you've gone and made me feel all nostalgic for the early days of IM.
Adam Posey
· 1 year ago
I think the broader trend isn't towards redundancy, but towards personal relevance. Look at what's happened as a result of the web2.0 explosion.
People are using their personal names as monikers, putting up photos of themselves, etc. The reason Facebook chat is good is simply because it's personally relevant. That's it's leg-up on all the others.
You've got a name, and you know that person. That person will not be switching names to confuse the hell out of you. I'm sure you're all familiar with this: " SocerGRUL910: Hi! You: Uh. Hi? Do I know you? SocerGRUL910: It's me! Your Girlfriend this is my new nick. You: Oh.. ok, let me add you to the list of your other names. "
Now it's just a first and last name, and a picture. You have to admit - THAT is an improvement.
Anderson
· 1 year ago
Web2.0 is not innovation, it's not even related. There is not technological challenege in Web2.0, just logical, as to how to arrange things. We are not living in the 1890-1950 , when technolgical advances were fast and meaningful, now we just have gradual normal progress of things
Joshua Baer
· 1 year ago
What's powerful about instant messaging is not the ability to send messages - we could do that with email. It's the buddy list and the "presence" information. It's your list of the people that are important to you and knowing when they are online or not to enable real-time interaction like actual IM messages (or audio chat, or video chat, or playing a game, or whatever).
The reason why Facebook IM is powerful/interesting is not that it gives you a new way to do IM. It's that now you don't need to maintain a separate list of your "buddies" in AIM, your buddy list is the same list you are already maintaining in Facebook.
A Web Worker (Inside the Machi
· 1 year ago
@ Dean:
I can see where you're coming from, however, Yeah... But...
What's different from the other Chat Apps already running on Facebook?
I work for a couple of startups (spend my time on a couple of clients' development needs), and while I also get carried away by the "let's take this in a different angle" race from one project to another -- I've come to realize that a lot of it is just riffing on past glories.
And, in Net terms, I'm an old man -- having come to web dev in '94 and kept up with things from there... It sure is amazing how things have changed. Almost as amazing as how much they've remained the same.
Mike Flynn
· 1 year ago
Don't forget that, as far as chatting goes, some of the 2.0 startups are doing it right by bringing IRC to the masses. For example, Justin.tv uses a flash client on top of an IRC chat room, so you could chat on the page or log in to your favorite IRC client. (I believe UStream's chat is setup the same way.)
I also know that the WyldRyde chat server also provides a decent flash client for their servers that I've used before...
Anyway, the point is, if you look for it, you can have your web chat 2.0 cake and eat it with your old trusty IRC fork if you look hard enough.
Colby Olson
· 1 year ago
I would love to see some mobile IRC support. :D
modemlooper
· 1 year ago
is it chatrooms or just instant message? There's a difference and since I have my aim link in my profile makes no sense for me to switch to facebook app. Knowing facebook we will get served ads based on what we type :(
DomsRoberts
· 1 year ago
It does open up a whole new world of opportunities for advertisers. Facebook can now track your conversations with other people and use it to target the advertising they display. It would be possible to automate conversations between fake users and real users to direct the real user towards other sites or products. Surely that would be a big new opoprtunity for dating sites. I think I'll go and start work on it straight away!!
Kyle James
· 1 year ago
You have run into the dilemma that every blogger runs into. Coming up with new and original content is almost impossible because someone somewhere has already written about it before. What you are left with is rewriting something that has already been written about, even if you don't know about it which is most likely.
If creating a new application like this was revolutionary then it would be worth millions and everyone would want to copy it, exactly what your talking about.
I hate to tell you, but less than 1% of what's out there is truly original and this applies to any industry or any medium. Problem is now that you have taken the red pill it will start to bother you a whole lot more in everything that you look at. :)
Lars
· 1 year ago
Ah, the days of IRC -- and Lynx, Mosaic and Netscape betas.
What a nice community it were then . . .
The web has become a haven for wankers, wowsers, wimblets and wussoids -- just like the real world.
All Comments
I think what is exciting about the facebook chat development is that it takes the socilization on a major soical network from past tense ( inbox, feeds, wall posts etc ) to a realtime interaction level.
Dean
YouCams.com
I'm a huge fan of IRC. I got my start in basic scripting in IRC communities, started using Linux thanks to what I learned in IRC, and so forth. IRC is second nature to me when it comes to the web.
I think the issue is mostly that interacting with IRC has never grown up. Registration and daily use requires obscure syntax that the every-day chatter just isn't going to want to learn.
It may be superior technology, and it'll continue to thrive as a means of support for communities I imagine. But you're right. IRC (and basic web forums) WERE the social web before the social web. And now you've gone and made me feel all nostalgic for the early days of IM.
People are using their personal names as monikers, putting up photos of themselves, etc. The reason Facebook chat is good is simply because it's personally relevant. That's it's leg-up on all the others.
You've got a name, and you know that person. That person will not be switching names to confuse the hell out of you. I'm sure you're all familiar with this:
"
SocerGRUL910: Hi!
You: Uh. Hi? Do I know you?
SocerGRUL910: It's me! Your Girlfriend this is my new nick.
You: Oh.. ok, let me add you to the list of your other names. "
Now it's just a first and last name, and a picture. You have to admit - THAT is an improvement.
The reason why Facebook IM is powerful/interesting is not that it gives you a new way to do IM. It's that now you don't need to maintain a separate list of your "buddies" in AIM, your buddy list is the same list you are already maintaining in Facebook.
I can see where you're coming from, however,
Yeah... But...
What's different from the other Chat Apps already running on Facebook?
I work for a couple of startups (spend my time on a couple of clients' development needs), and while I also get carried away by the "let's take this in a different angle" race from one project to another -- I've come to realize that a lot of it is just riffing on past glories.
And, in Net terms, I'm an old man -- having come to web dev in '94 and kept up with things from there... It sure is amazing how things have changed. Almost as amazing as how much they've remained the same.
I also know that the WyldRyde chat server also provides a decent flash client for their servers that I've used before...
Anyway, the point is, if you look for it, you can have your web chat 2.0 cake and eat it with your old trusty IRC fork if you look hard enough.
I think I'll go and start work on it straight away!!
If creating a new application like this was revolutionary then it would be worth millions and everyone would want to copy it, exactly what your talking about.
I hate to tell you, but less than 1% of what's out there is truly original and this applies to any industry or any medium. Problem is now that you have taken the red pill it will start to bother you a whole lot more in everything that you look at. :)
What a nice community it were then . . .
The web has become a haven for wankers, wowsers, wimblets and wussoids -- just like the real world.