Yesterday, Josh Lowensohn covered Yaplet, a very new tool for adding real-time chat to any Web site. If for some reason Yaplet doesn't float your boat, you might also want to check out Zpeech.
Add a message board to any site.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Zpeech has a few advantages over Yaplet. First, it's easier to initiate a Zpeech chat on a site. You just type the Zpeech.com URL, a slash, and the target domain. For example: www.zpeech.com/webware.com. Yaplet can also be kicked off by a URL, but the syntax is not as simple. Zpeech is also prettier than Yaplet. The chat window pops up over your page and can be moved around easily. A Yaplet chat can also be opened in a separate window, but when I tried, it opened up a whole new browser tab. Finally, Zpeech conversations are persistent, like message board postings. Yaplet conversations are like IM chats, and there's no record of historical conversations.
But we have three issues with Zpeech. It requires registration before you can chat. That will keep the trolls away and the noise level down in a room, but we think it will also keep casual conversations from starting at all. Second, Yaplet allows you to move from a public chat to a private online conversation with anyone who's in the room. Zpeech chats are all public. Third, Zpeech limits you to making two comments per minute. So much for rapid-fire chats.
As an ad hoc site-based message board (as opposed to chat) Zpeech works fine, and that's what its builders created it for. It's flow-control features and registration requirement keep things sober. That's why we like Yaplet so much more.
Yaplet is a simple idea: Add anonymous, no-registration chat to any Web site. Yaplet is a browser sidebar that can also be popped out as its own browser window. Each site is given its own chat room, and Yaplet caches site conversations for you or others to view, even when no one else is there.
To make the Yaplet experience a little more cohesive you can add an optional bookmarket to your browser. Clicking the bookmarket from any site you're currently on opens up the Yaplet sidebar.
If you're concerned about privacy, private chat is as simple as clicking another chatter's name. There's a simple master list of users that gives you admin controls to ignore or ban other chatters. You're also able to create your own secret rooms, accessible only to those you give a link to, essentially making it its own conference client. Yaplet also has a simple social networking component, keeping track of popular sites visited using Yaplet, plus a list of the top 50 within the last 24 hours.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Yaplet reminds me a little of Me.dium (see coverage here) the way it creates functionality in a Web site that wasn't originally intended. It also reminds me of Planet Minibox, the free shoutbox service I wrote about last month. Yaplet is a nice go-between, offering the core appeal of Me.dium (without a browser plug-in) and the ease of entry you get with Planet Minibox's always-on cached chat room. Not to mention it requires no special code or installation from site creators or visitors.
To try out Yaplet on Webware, click this button:
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