July 09, 2004
Instant browser chat through a link:
Chatango is an instant message application that allows people to post links on blogs, Ebay etc. and have people chat anonymously with sellers with no signup. This could be quite revolutionary. . . or ultimately impractical to use.
Interesting idea, and kudos to the developer, but are the implications COMPLETELY thought through? How is it disposable if my link is always the same: "http://username.chatango.com"? Aren't the number of instances of the link going to propogate (be indexed by search engines, etc.) and won't one eventually be overwhelmed by the number of conversations? I haven't used it yet, so perhaps there is a cookie built-in that has a user specified expiration date or time. At least that is the sort of mechanism I would expect if it is going to be truly disposable. Anybody tried it? See any other problems or concerns? How is this different from other "live chat" apps like PHP Live! ? (Stolen from MeFi)
-
Anyone remember Third Voice? That went south a little while after the hype would have us believe that it was the last word in free speech.
-
Sorry. Not reading carefully. The developer is apparently NOT David Galbraith but someone named Alec. I have not figured out precisely who yet. Mecurious apologizes for the error.
-
The developer is: Alec Matusis an M.I.T. alum. Hmmm. One problem is that with a static URL, you are not the only one who controls how many links out there point at you. Second problem seems to be scalability. They are getting a good test today between MeFi and MoFi. : )
-
Heh. Some commenters on Me-Fi may be finding a downside, as we speak.
-
oh I like this!
-
No worky. Firewall here at work no like it. meh.
-
Interesting, Flagpole, because one of the stated purposes of Chatango was "If you have trouble using IM with people behind corporate firewalls, Chatango will work." Are we certain that is the problem? Or is it possibly that their server is getting hammered and just isn't keeping up?