by Leigh Goessl

Created on: August 08, 2011

The Internet has revolutionized how people are able to communicate. No longer are individuals constrained to telephones or having to write letters of correspondence which need to be mailed. With the progression of web technology, the costs of communication have been drastically reduced, and the options for contacting others has significantly increased.

Socialization online has become a routine part of the lives of many, and many activities that used to take place offline are now happening in the virtual world.  There are many ways to communicate with others on the Internet, and three of the primary methods people utilize to talk to old friends, or meet new ones, are chat, instant messaging and forums. Each serve a different purpose, although all are centered around communication.

• Chat

Chat is a method of communication where many individuals can have a conversation simultaneously in live time through use of the web. Traditionally chat has been in text form, however with the steady progression of technology capabilities, a new concept in 2011 was brought to social networking when Google released its new Google+ social network with a video chat feature called 'Hangouts'. 

Video conferencing is not a new notion as businesses have been using it or years. However, in the social network arena, it is a new concept. This has elevated online chat to an entirely new level and is likely to forever alter online social networking if this network takes off. Even if Google+ cannot effectively make the grade and compete, the idea has now been seeded and brought to fruition; it is likely to stay.

• Instant messaging

Instant messaging is a text-based form of communication that occurs one-on-one in real-time. Often referred to as "IM". There are many instant messaging services that exist such as AOL's AIM, Google's Gchat, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN's instant messenger to name a few. Additionally as technology moves forward and mobile steadily becomes the norm, many service providers are adding instant message capabilities to mobile devices.

• Forums

Forums are essentially virtual bulletin boards that allow member audiences to communicate back and forth with one another. Many websites offer forums as a means for people to discuss topics one another. These are not real time in terms of response, but the speed of the conversation depends on how is viewing the forum at that particular time and whether or not they want to comment. Some forums are open, but most require a membership in order to post a comment.

Chat, instant messaging and forums are all common forms of online communication and have been around for over a decade. However as society becomes more engrossed in online communications and craves better capabilities of conversation that mimic offline interaction, chances are new and dynamic features will continue to be developed that will alter these three traditional forms of online socialization.

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