The evolution of chat interfaces: an overview of startups
The market for IM-applications is clearly on the rise, and developers are probably planning a promising development of their programs. Some companies clearly specialize in IM innovations: for example, Meebo , Skype , Wablet and Userplane , which AOL recently bought. If we analyze the activities of these companies and consider the most innovative IM clients, we can try to predict in which direction IM interfaces will evolve .
Interoperability
After the success of the pioneers of AIM and ICQ, a whole series of “hacker” client programs appeared that support working simultaneously with several IM networks. These are programs such as Trillian , Gaim , Adium and Miranda .
There are currently ten closed IM protocols on the Internet that are incompatible with each other. New ones also appear, which confuses users a little. For example, recently among many business people it has become fashionable to communicate on Skype . But Skype Instant Messaging is another closed proprietary protocol that is practically incompatible with other IM programs, although Skype is trying to promote development tools to integrate it into third-party web applications.
However, interoperability is gradually becoming the de facto standard for closed IM networks. For example, this spring, Yahoo and Microsoft announced the creation of a gate between the IM networks of Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. The Google Talk program, as you know, works on the open protocol Jabber .
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Browser integration
Several startups, including Meebo and eBuddy , have developed innovative Ajax web applications that run through the browser. Chat widget MeeboMe can be implemented on any site. According to statistics, the popularity of this kind of services is growing rapidly: Meebo transmits already 70 million messages per day.
User Locations
IM-programs of the new generation RadiusIM and Meetro work on the principle of social networks. They ask the user to indicate in the profile where he is physically located, and then inform him if another user is found nearby who meets the specified criteria.
Change masks
As communication between people completely goes online, each person has a problem of communication under different masks (avatars). As you know, each person behaves differently in the family, at work and in a public place with strangers. It is quite natural that IM programs of the future will support several profiles for each person, and each profile will have a separate contact list.
To solve this problem, some of us have several accounts, but the first programs have appeared that support this functionality initially, for example, Wablet . In the future, OpenID support will be built into this program. By the way, this open standard for exporting profiles is already supported by the ScribbleHere program.
Contextual chat
Some startups, including Me.dium , Geesee , InCircles , OthersOnline and 3bubbles, experiment with contextual chat features when the chat window opens, for example, with keywords in a blog. Thus, visitors to thousands of different sites can talk with each other on one topic. The program works through the plugin in the browser.
Multimedia
Webcams and microphones are increasingly used in modern IM-programs due to the spread of broadband access and the popularity of VoIP. Dozens of free programs, including the leader in this market, Skype, allow you to call even home and mobile phones of users in many countries around the world. Until now, voice and video are not used very intensively, but in the future multimedia will probably be gradually replacing text communications.
Interoperability
After the success of the pioneers of AIM and ICQ, a whole series of “hacker” client programs appeared that support working simultaneously with several IM networks. These are programs such as Trillian , Gaim , Adium and Miranda .
There are currently ten closed IM protocols on the Internet that are incompatible with each other. New ones also appear, which confuses users a little. For example, recently among many business people it has become fashionable to communicate on Skype . But Skype Instant Messaging is another closed proprietary protocol that is practically incompatible with other IM programs, although Skype is trying to promote development tools to integrate it into third-party web applications.
However, interoperability is gradually becoming the de facto standard for closed IM networks. For example, this spring, Yahoo and Microsoft announced the creation of a gate between the IM networks of Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. The Google Talk program, as you know, works on the open protocol Jabber .
')
Browser integration
Several startups, including Meebo and eBuddy , have developed innovative Ajax web applications that run through the browser. Chat widget MeeboMe can be implemented on any site. According to statistics, the popularity of this kind of services is growing rapidly: Meebo transmits already 70 million messages per day.
User Locations
IM-programs of the new generation RadiusIM and Meetro work on the principle of social networks. They ask the user to indicate in the profile where he is physically located, and then inform him if another user is found nearby who meets the specified criteria.
Change masks
As communication between people completely goes online, each person has a problem of communication under different masks (avatars). As you know, each person behaves differently in the family, at work and in a public place with strangers. It is quite natural that IM programs of the future will support several profiles for each person, and each profile will have a separate contact list.
To solve this problem, some of us have several accounts, but the first programs have appeared that support this functionality initially, for example, Wablet . In the future, OpenID support will be built into this program. By the way, this open standard for exporting profiles is already supported by the ScribbleHere program.
Contextual chat
Some startups, including Me.dium , Geesee , InCircles , OthersOnline and 3bubbles, experiment with contextual chat features when the chat window opens, for example, with keywords in a blog. Thus, visitors to thousands of different sites can talk with each other on one topic. The program works through the plugin in the browser.
Multimedia
Webcams and microphones are increasingly used in modern IM-programs due to the spread of broadband access and the popularity of VoIP. Dozens of free programs, including the leader in this market, Skype, allow you to call even home and mobile phones of users in many countries around the world. Until now, voice and video are not used very intensively, but in the future multimedia will probably be gradually replacing text communications.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/4722/
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