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Comment by staunch | Hacker News Reader

I hope this one makes it to its full potential. A heck of a lot more sites should have chat embedded on them than currently do. HN is a perfect example. We should have a "Chat" link in the navigation bar where we can hang out. We should be automatically signed in with our existing usernames.

A while ago I looked into doing this and were no good options. Mibbit was the closest but it's a bit ugly, doesn't have much of an API, and relies on IRC (which has pros and cons).

Personally I hate the Meebo-style bar they've implemented, but the actual chat is good and you can embed it in a page and disable the bar entirely.

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> Mibbit was the closest but it's a bit ugly

sob :(

One man's trash is another man's treasure. I love mibbit and have been a happy user for years. It's been doing wonders for a wider acceptance of IRC.

Hey man, don't be sad, you inspire us! : )

hehe thanks. Unfortunately most of my work lately has been on scaling and keeping the service running smoothly. One day I'll get back to adding features and smartening things up :)

Good luck to envolve BTW, they have a good product I think, hopefully the're ready for the inevitable growing pains, attacks, etc etc

Almost 6 months. ;) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2272448

heh yup. Bye for another 6 months!

I remember having a holy shit moment when I tried Envolve. This is definitely one of those service you want to see succeed.

Honest question - why do more sites need chat? Is it really something people are dying to do? I find directly chatting rather awkward when I'm not fully engaged with the person to begin with. I feel like most people start with delayed communication (message boards, email, etc) and work towards quicker means of communication (chat, video, phone, etc) only when warranted.

Thanks for the feedback! It's interesting you associate the toolbar approach with Meebo, rather than Facebook.

It's peculiar you find interesting he associates the toolbar approach with Meebo, rather than Facebook.

For me, chat toolbars that can be placed on third-party sites make me think of Meebo as well. I don't think Facebook has a third-party embeddable toolbar (yet).

It was announced over a year ago at f8, but nothing ever came of it.

chartbeat did the exact same thing called firefly. Their implementation was almost identical to envovle, but they ultimately pivoted to what they are today.

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