Chapter 6. Chatting and Instant Messenger

Feel the need to reach out and touch someone, live and (almost) in person? Chat puts you online in a live conversation with other Internet users anywhere in the world.

And whereas chatting used to require a high degree of technical understanding, that's no longer the case. It used to require downloading a software program—a chat client—and installing it on your computer. Now, however, more and more people simply chat using their browser, through one of hundreds of sites that offer it.

Instant messaging is another way of reaching out and touching someone. What began as an America Online–only exercise is now available to anyone on the Web.

You might as well know that a substantial amount of chat traffic ...

Get Sams Teach Yourself Internet and Web Basics All in One now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.