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help - feedback - sponsor this guide Most people using the search term "chat" are looking for Web sites that feature multiple-user text-based conversations which take place in real-time. However, chatting over computer networks was widespread long before the advent of the World Wide Web, dating back to a time when very few computer networks were even connected to the network of computer networks that is now known as The Internet. To be sure, online chatting began on proprietary mainframe computer networks that were connected by phone lines. To wit, in lieu of placing phone calls between remote locations, computer operators would communicate with each other by sending short text messages to each other's printer terminals. By the year 1985, online chatting had evolved into a pastime that proved to be a computer resource hog, and it has had a checkered history ever since. Online chatting was particulary widespread over dial-up computer networks known as "Bulletin Board Systems" (commonly abbreviated as "BBS"), but the primordial Internet-based chat application was known as "Internet Relay Chat" or "IRC." IRC was first deployed in August of 1988 on a computer server at the University of Oulu, Finland. It evolved from "Relay," another chatting application which was widely used over the now defunct EARN/BITNET computer network. IRC proved to be enormously popular, if not addictive, but the popularity of IRC among Internet pioneers has been all but eclipsed by the popularity of various Web-based chat communities and instant messenger applications. Sponsored Link: Are you looking for collections of links featuring "chat" Web sites?
Are you looking for Web sites featuring information about the Internet Relay "Chat"?
Are you looking for information about other "chat" software?
Are you looking for online "chat" communities?
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