Here is something interesting I discovered quite on accident this afternoon while browsing. It caught my attention because I have a friend who has been trying to come up with a way that people can chat together while surfing his web page. The service is Gabbly, and it’s amazingly simple. All one has to do is stick “gabbly.com/” before any URL (in a compatible browser) and it will open not only the URL you typed, but a window to chat in. I’ve tried several of my favorite places (including this blog right here) and, sadly, have been the only “Gabber” around.
One quite interesting detail is that when you leave a website, your conversation doesn’t; it stays for whoever shows up next. In fact, I have seen many previous conversations on exactly that topic, past gabbers chatting about past gabbers. There seems to be lots of potential here. You could leave notes to people about what content is good, or post links to relevant items. Of course, there are also those who just spam the heck out of any chat they can get their handle into.
Another chat I came across seemed to be one fellow initiating his friend into the Gabbly-ness. They started out at Kotaku and then, following the first’s suggestion (in the chat window,) headed over to Engadget. Friends can surf together! Of course, there is nothing preventing people from going to Engadget together in any instant messenger program they choose, but they aren’t going to meet up with anyone else when they get there. Is this just goofy, or will it really catch on? I have no idea, but it’s definitely worth taking for a spin.