I was asked by UZOOM to to review their site and the chat softwares they provide. I thought the softs were pretty neat and worth a mention. So here it goes…

If you are on a self-hosted blog, chances are that you have already used the ‘Live Support’ features most webhosting companies provide. I think it’s a really cool feature. Much better that having to open a ticket and wait for someone to reply to the ticket. Using a liveSupport function instead of the ticket system shows that your company actually wants to be accessible at all times. It simply shows that you care.

UZOOM is one company that provides all kinds of chat related softwares for your site/blog. First, we look at the ‘Live Chat’ feature. This service was very easy to setup and run. You just need to add the ‘LiveSupport’ button to your page that will show the ‘NOW ONLINE/OFFLINE’ status. The rest can be controlled from your account on their site itself. You can add additional operators so that your team can attend to different clients at the same time!

Just an example of how the button can look like

Then there is the Free Chat Client that allows you to add a neat looking chat window to any page (you don’t need an account with them for that). Just pick a nickname and chat away. As seen in the screenshot below, it has all the standard messaging features like text formatting and emoticons.

A screenshot of the embeddable free chat soft

But now the big question - Do you really need a chat software as a blogger? A support system could come real handy if you are a designer who’s just released a theme or a new plugin. If you are a full-time blogger, why give away your private messenger IDs when you could chat off your own blog! Sounds like a great way to give back some of that reader love. Then you can always add it to your facebook/myspace page.

+ves:

• Very easy to setup.
• Nice clean layout
• Gives you a professional touch

-ves:

• LiveChat sometimes took ages in the ‘connecting servers’ phase.
• LiveChat is a tad expensive if you don’t make much money from your product
• Anyone could pose as you while you are away on the free chat client! There should have been an authenticated login for the admin

Note: I have implemented the chat client on my blog. Give it a shot. It can be found here.