
Envolve (YC S11) Launches An API For Real-Time Chat - nathantross
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/10/yc-funded-envolve-launches-an-api-for-real-time-chat/
======
hristov
Here is a bit of 2000 bubble lore about a company that did the same thing.

[http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/my-name-is-james-a-
and-...](http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/my-name-is-james-a-and-im-an-
alcoholic/)

I am not saying this is relvant to anything, but it is just interesting.

In any event good luck to Envolve. I am sure they will do much better than
gooey, mostly because they do not require users to download or install
anything.

~~~
gojomo
Even earlier than Gooey was Ubique's Virtual Places.

The no-plug-in, all HTML and JS qualities of the current breed of tools – plus
many more users familiar with the basic idea (from Facebook and elsewhere) –
make it a much better idea now.

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staunch
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.

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

 _sob_ :(

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

~~~
mibbit
heh yup. Bye for another 6 months!

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pacemkr
"the site later allowed websites to merge the toolbar with their own user
account systems — which has fared better. "

Exactly. And this puts them in an entirely different category from Meboo, etc.
Anybody who ever ran a forum and has tried putting a real time chat on it will
know this. TC got this slightly wrong; the only real competition out there is
RealChat. There are simply no other solid solutions out there. I do this
search every year and come up empty handed. As for RealChat, it is too
expensive.

------
brandnewlow
And here's envolve's cool HN implementation:
<http://envo.lv/http://news.ycombinator.com>

~~~
ay
bug: requiring sign-in to continue and then putting up a popup "test"

~~~
mayop100
good catch. fixed.

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muuh-gnu
Mibbit has been offering such a service for years, but completely based on IRC
under the hood.

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docgnome
Can someone explain to me why people keep referring to "Real-Time" chat? I've
seen it multiple times and don't understand why... How is this in anyway
different from just... chat. Is this some sort of buzzword bingo?

------
mayop100
Hey HN - we've got some cool new developer tools now. We'd love some feedback
if you guys want to give them a shot. Developers like you are our target
audience.

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watmough
This is awesome. Kinda related, I've been thinking for ages about whether one
could now do encrypted chat between users in the browser, with the encryption
happening at either end and the server never seeing plain-text.

Back in the real World, is there a mechanism to do a quick 'email to invite
user to chat to me'? That would seem like a pretty solid way to win eyeballs.

My dad isn't on Yahoo, but he could click a link and run javascript.

------
jswinghammer
I think the only piece that's missing for me is a way to bring chat logs into
my application so people can review them later. My usage will be for users to
answer questions so the content will be highly relevant to users who come
along when a chat isn't active.

------
bravura
This appears to only support group chat.

What about one on one chat, like facebook? So that you can have personal
conversations with other users of the site?

~~~
jazzychad
You can. If you click on a username, there is a link to "Chat" which creates a
one-on-one chat with them.

------
endlessvoid94
I'm using this on ThatHigh.com and it's awesome.

~~~
mayop100
And sending tens of thousands of messages per day I might add...

~~~
endlessvoid94
:-) My users LOVE it. The new level of engagement I'm seeing is leading me to
put some more work into the site and grow it a bit more.

Anyway, envolve is awesome.

~~~
adam
Agreed - it's been great. As soon as we added it we couldn't believe the pent
up conversations that began to take place. Now we're actually hiring some
community managers in large part to manage and hang out in the chat rooms.

------
walrus
I think it should be more obvious that you can change your name without
actually signing up for anything.

~~~
mayop100
The product itself is generally used with our API so login is automated by the
site owner. On our own site we use it in its default mode where login can be
done through FB or Twitter (or as a guest or our own account system)

------
SebMortelmans
I think this is a great idea, so much potential, mainly in the community
aspect.

~~~
jamest
Thanks Seb! If you have any feedback for us, please swing by the site or drop
us an email!

~~~
jamest
Regarding a scaling question in the chat going on here:
<http://envo.lv/http://news.ycombinator.com>

Check out <http://www.mindlessbehavior.com> for an example of a large # of
concurrents.

------
rorrr
Ideas:

1) Allow pasting images

2) Make a simple gfx JS editor to let users make simple drawings, it's fun

3) Personal ban list + spam reporting

4) Flood control

~~~
jamest
Awesome, thanks so much for the input.

\- Flood control is already baked in. 4 messages every 10 seconds is the
limit.

\- Pasting images gets ugly (eg porn). We'll think of a good way to do this
soon.

\- JS editor is a sweet idea!

\- Personal ban list / spam reporting are on their way.

Thanks again.

