Chat Software

Chat software is used for communicating by sending text messages to people in the same chat-room in real-time after it has been installed on the computer. Most of the chat software is free for download on the internet. Some chat rooms such as Yahoo! use both text and voice simultaneously. The oldest form of true chat rooms are the text-based variety. It takes some software only about 5 minutes to install on the computer before you start to chat.
The primary use of a chat room is to share information via text with a group of other users. New technology has enabled the use of file sharing and webcams to be included in some programs and almost all Internet chat or messaging services allow users to display or send to each other photos of themselves. With a prolific rise in the activity of ‘Sexting’, where people send digitized nude or otherwise sexually explicit photos of themselves electronically to be viewed by others, it is becoming increasingly common for chat room users to exchange nude or sexual photos.

Language Issues
Even today, relatively little is known about the discourse produced in on-line communication contexts. While there is a growing body of literature on sociolinguistic variation in French chat for example, other forms of computer mediated communication (e.g. discussion fora, weblogs, etc.) have received less attention.

Social Criticism
There has been much criticism about what online chatting has done in today’s society. Many people are accusing it of replacing proper English with short hand with an almost completely new hybrid language.
Writing is changing as it takes on some of the functions and features of speech. Internet chatrooms and rapid real-time conferencing allow users to interact with whoever happens to coexist in cyberspace. These virtual interactions involve us in `talking' more freely and more widely than ever before (Merchant, 2001). With chatrooms replacing many face-to-face conversations it is necessary to be able to have quick conversation as if the person was right there with you. So many people learn to type like they would normally speak. Critics are wary that this causal form of speech is being used so much that is will slowly take over common grammar. Anyone who has used any source of online chat before is familiar with the laziness of the grammar and punctuation. In many times people do not even use words that exist in proper English, but are made up or even abbreviations like LOL (laugh out loud). With the increasing population of online chatrooms there has been a massive growth of new words created or slang words, many of them documented on the website Urban Dictionary.

Software and protocols
The following are common chat software programs and protocols:
• AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
• www.camfrog.com
• www.campfire.com
• www.Gadu-Gadu.com
• www.Google Talk.com
• ICQ (OSCAR)
• www.InSpeakCommunicator.com
• www.xmpp.com
• www.mud.com
• www.paltalk.com
• www.addonchat.com
• www.SILC.com
• www.Skype.com
• www.Talk.com
• www.Talker.com
• www.TeamSpeak.com
• www.WindowsLiveMessenger.com
• www.YahooMessenger.com