Recommend a universal chat client to embed on a webpage?

[superboyac]

Hi everyone, now I'm looking for a hopefully easy to use universal chat client to embed into a webpage.  I'd like to do a live streaming talk show (audio only for now) and I want people to be able to chat on the same page.  I'd like all the major protocols to be supported in one interface...google, aim, facebook, icq, etc. as many as possible.  Does anyone know of anything?  The website would be here:
http://tbgentertainment.com/stream/stream.html

If it turns out well, I'd like also to do a live talk show about topics dc members would be interested in as well.

OK, after some more research...I don't really want a whole chatroom embedded on the site.  I just want the chat feed to be displayed on the site.  So, let's say I'm using Miranda or some other universal client to chat, I just want the feed being sent to the website and displayed.  So it's not really interactive, it's just a display.

[superboyac]

http://www.123flashchat.com/feature.html

yeah?  How about that?

[app103]

Be careful with something like that. Look over your web hosts TOS and make sure it doesn't forbid running a chat server...many don't allow it.

[superboyac]

Be careful with something like that. Look over your web hosts TOS and make sure it doesn't forbid running a chat server...many don't allow it.

I don't really want a chat server...let's say I'm chatting on my computer using a universal client like miranda...I want the feed being displayed on the website.  It's not serving anything, it's just showing what my own chat is doing.

But on that note, why would they be opposed to it?

[superboyac]

Ah...as usual I'm overengineering this.  I think the easiest way to do this is to setup a twitter account and just display the twitter feed on the site.  Everyone has twitter, the posts are nice and short.  It should do.  Twitter also has embed code readily available.

[app103]

123FlashChat is a chat server that would run on your site, that people can log into with their existing social media accounts. The more people that are logged in, the more of your server's resources and bandwidth would be used.

The twitter option would be much lighter and wouldn't require running a chat server on your site.

Another option could be to embed a friendfeed post into your page. This would allow for real-time conversation right on your page for anyone with a friendfeed account. There wouldn't be a character limit on users for how long their comments could be, either. They could exceed well beyond Twitter's 140 limit. It's kind of like the best features of a chat room combined with the best features of a commenting system.

Here is an example of what it looks like when embedded into a page: http://kochlab.blogspot.com/2011/03/andys-microtubule-gliding-speed-data.html

And it's pretty simple to do. You just make a short post on friendfeed and then click the share link on it. At the bottom of the popup box will be an embed code to paste into your page.

To make it look better than the example I linked to, don't include an image, just a simple text title for the post and link to the page it will be embedded on. The reason for including the link is because of the nature of friendfeed, where commenting tends to spread the content to a user's friends on the network, who may want to see what they are commenting on and join in on the conversation. (consider it free advertising)

I have also seen this used on a few sites for podcasts to allow live feedback from listeners at the time of the live broadcast, and then left up and open to be added to by those that download the archived version. The nice thing about it is that you get to keep the full history of the conversation embedded into your website and not just the last so many comments.

Twitter isn't very good if you want to keep all the related tweets. They kind of restrict it to the most recent ones, and I think once the tweets are more than a week old, they disappear.

[superboyac]

Good points, app.  The only thing I don't like about that friendfeed is that it's another thing for people to sign up to.  Sure, it can use your existing facebook/google account, but I'd like something with no additional signups.  I'm not such a popular guy where people are willing to sign up to give me a shot.  Any hesitation means they're just going to leave.

[superboyac]

http://zooshia.com/

Also looks pretty good.  I'll definitely give this one a shot.

[app103]

That just displays a feed. What feed would you display in it?

[superboyac]

That just displays a feed. What feed would you display in it?

That's exactly what I want, i think.  I just want it to show the feeds from the most popular protocols like facebook, twitter, etc.

[JavaJones]

Twitter is also "something to sign up for" if, like me, you don't use Twitter. And though Twitter is a popular service, it's nowhere near the popularity of say Facebook, so it's more than possible some of your users would have to sign up. Not to mention that Friendfeed allows people to sign up with their Twitter or FB accounts anyway.

There's also Meebo Me: http://www.meebo.com/meebome/

- Oshyan

[superboyac]

I guess the question is, what's the easiest way for people to send me a message if they visit the website?  Email? facebook? twitter?  Also consider people who are visiting on a mobile device.

Actually I think the easiest thing would be a chatfeed where anyone can just type and have it show up.  No registration, no verifications, no login...just type and go.  Would that quickly get spammed to death?

[app103]

How about Disqus?

Visitors could log in with Disqus, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, OpenID, or just as a guest (with name/email)

It supports most blogging platforms and there is a js widget code for inserting on non-blog pages, which means it will work anywhere.

[superboyac]

How about Disqus?

Visitors could log in with Disqus, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, OpenID, or just as a guest (with name/email)

It supports most blogging platforms and there is a js widget code for inserting on non-blog pages, which means it will work anywhere.

Looks good.  I'm worried about the pricing scheme.  I need to pay $300 a month if I want real time updating?  I don't think so.  Where these people get these prices from I have no idea.  Who pays for this??

[app103]

Who pays for this??

CNN, Time, FOX

[app103]

Found this one: Livefyre

Real time commenting, voting, ratings, nested replies, media inclusion, and moderation that can be accessible through online or mobile.

Login options are Facebook, Twitter, or Livefyre account.

And there is a free community version good for sites with under 2 million monthly views.

Judging from the comments here, they have a good responsive helpful support staff, too.

[superboyac]

Found this one: Livefyre

Real time commenting, voting, ratings, nested replies, media inclusion, and moderation that can be accessible through online or mobile.

Login options are Facebook, Twitter, or Livefyre account.

And there is a free community version good for sites with under 2 million monthly views.

Judging from the comments here, they have a good responsive helpful support staff, too.

Nice find, app!  That might be the winner right there.  Thanks for the help.