A quick search on the Internet will turn up millions of links to chat rooms. Where do they come from? Many people will be surprised to find that these rooms are called websites. While it is possible to find names that sound similar, such as chat rooms, they are not necessarily all the same. There are dozens of different types and subtypes of chat sites.
For simplicity’s sake, the term chat room refers to any kind of virtually synchronized online conversation, and sometimes even fully synchronized offline conversations. Thus, the term chat room can denote many things, from real-time chats and online conversations with strangers to fully immersive virtual visual environments where everyone appears in front of similar screens. This is one way to think of them, but they can also be multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) games, discussion forums, or social networking sites. Some rooms are multiplayer free, where all players are in the same room, while others are limited to a small group of specific friends. There are also chat rooms that use a hybrid model, where some rooms are separate from the main server and are inhabited by only a few regular players.
When you talk about what a chat room is, you have to pay attention to the terminology. Usually, they are used interchangeably. Chat rooms are not always separate platforms; sometimes they are part of the same website or used in combination with other online services. An example of this is a forum, which is essentially a site where people can talk to each other about specific topics, often with the option to register an email address in case they have questions or comments. The same type of online chat is often used in social networking sites.
A typical chat room has multiple visual display panels for displaying chat messages, such as message boards and forums. Sometimes message boards are combined with video displays or images. Usually, text chat boxes appear below these graphical displays. In some cases, a small number of chat clients are connected to a single visual display panel, and sometimes there are separate chat clients and chat rooms for each different type of media.
Since the advent of online user groups or chats, chat rooms have become more than just a place for people to talk about their pets. There are now professional groups that meet regularly, gaming groups that have monthly leagues, and even religious groups that pray daily. There are professional networks with hundreds of thousands of members. And these groups are very visible to people searching for chat rooms on the Internet. So the question “What is a chat room?”
Another popular use of chat rooms is to play games online. Virtually every major online computer game has chat rooms, as well as individual chat rooms for individual players. Many of these multiplayer games have elaborate and interesting chat menus that allow players to communicate and interact with each other.
These social networking sites allow many people to share their hobbies and recreational activities. Some of these sites (such as Facebook and MySpace) offer entire chat rooms or individual conversation areas for users to communicate with each other. On the Internet, the term “chat room” can also refer to informal chats that occur between Internet users in which no real monetary compensation is exchanged. These may always occur on chat boards, message boards, and forums dedicated to specific interests, topics, or other subjects.
What is a chat room? It’s a new term that you may not be familiar with. But the Internet has changed the way we do business, and perhaps in the future will change the way we communicate.