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July 24, 2008 7:58:19 AM CDT

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Chat Rooms Return—in 3-D

Posted Mar 31, 08 11:11 AM CDT in Technology 

(Newser) – A group of Silicon Valley startups is looking to bring the "social" back into social-networking and other popular websites, the New York Times reports. Vivaty is developing 3-D virtual chat rooms users can embed in web pages—including social-networking profiles—and will begin Facebook testing this week. And Meebo’s 2-D chat rooms, launched last year, have proliferated fast.

Facebook, meanwhile, is also planning to introduce live chat, startup TokBox offers live video chat, and a variety of live video-streaming services incorporate chat as well. “A lot of basic human communication needs have been lost in this age of siloed, one-to-one communications,” argued one venture capitalist. “At the end of the day, we are a social species.”

Source New York Times

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Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks to press and advertising partners, November 6, 2007. A new company will start testing 3-D virtual chat rooms on Facebook this week.   (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
The Facebook logo is displayed at a news conference in New York in this November 6, 2007 file photo.   (AP Photo)
Kelsey Fowler, left, and Kendra Jain use BarbieGirls.com on April 26, 2007. The Mattel site lets girls create their own virtual character, hang out, and chat live with other girls.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Glide Chat makes it easy and cost effective to have online meetings. Users can communicate globally using live video, audio and text conferencing with anyone, anywhere, anytime, share files securely and...   (AP Photo)
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Internet  • Facebook  • social networking  • Silicon Valley  • startup  • chat room  • Meebo


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