Firefly, from New York-based start-up Betaworks, is a Web service that lets Webmasters and site administrators add a live instant chat feature to their blog or site. Unlike some live chat apps, this one runs on-the-fly with no need to install anything. The firefly service works similarly to Meebo's Web-based Meebo Me IM service, in that you can add live messaging to your blog or Web site, but firefly pumps out a lot more eye-candy than Meebo Me. It may not be the best live chat choice for your corporate Web site, but it will interest those looking to add chat features to their blog, personal or community-oriented pages .

How To Add Firefly to Your Site

To get firefly on your own site, you simply click the "add firefly" button on the Web site and accept the Terms of Service. You will see a line of JavaScript code that you will need to copy and paste on to your own Web page, right before your closing </body> tag. You can also add the JavaScript code to a common include or template on your site, such as a footer, so the chat will be available on every page.

To offer a firefly chat area to your users, you will also need to include your choice of firefly display. This is done by adding a second line of code on your page where you want the chat to appear. Firefly provides cut-and-paste JavaScript code to add a small, non-intrusive "firefly bar" that shows in the bottom right-hand corner of your page. The details are automatically updated with the number of people on your site and the number of people talking.  Firefly also offers code for two styles of 'Switches' that show the number of people on the site, the number of active users, and a button to turn firefly on or off. The default is off, but when a user clicks the button to "on," firefly loads on the page. You can also get code for a basic text link to open firefly, or, for those who know how to edit JavaScript, you can create your own firefly chat display. The Firefly site also provides instructions for how to add firefly using Flash.

It's one thing to offer an instant live chat feature to your site, but most site administrators will want to be able to manage users, ban those who choose to use unsavory language and otherwise be bothersome and pose a negative impact to others on the site.  To access firefly administration options you will need to enter in your site URL and e-mail address in a form on the firefly site. This will provide you with a text file that you edit to include a password and upload it to your server. Firefly will then authenticate your file and with that done you can ban users or access your site's chat history to remove inappropriate messages.

Design, Functionality and Chat Bubbles Galore

Firefly has a very innovative design, however we did not find the interface all that intuitive for site visitors who had never used or heard of firefly before. In setting firefly up on a personal Web site, the first two users we invited to try the chat didn't quite understand how to get started. Some site administrators and bloggers may want to add a text description about firefly on their page to help users better understand what the live chat service does and how to use it; that is until firefly becomes more commonly used online and people are familiar with how it works.

For users, firefly does three things: It lets you see other people move around the page by showing colored mouse cursors, it lets people chat in real-time or leave a message, and it also lets you see the messages that were left by previous users. The maximum number of chatters is set to fifty. If there are already fifty users in the session, new chatters are placed in a waiting queue.

Figure 1.

After several people have left messages, users in the chat can be quite distracted by the 'chat bubbles' left all over the page and, unfortunately, they can cover most of your page content, rather than remaining contained in a small area within the page. As you can see in figure 1, it also can be quite difficult to follow the live chat as the chat bubbles just pop-up anywhere on the screen from out of nowhere. A better flow of the chat, and by that I mean an alternative option for displaying the chat messages is needed. You can see a small clock beside the chat bubble so you know when the message was left, but that really seems like just too much work to keep a conversation going.

One area of functionality where firefly has done a good job is in enabling users to differentiate between other live users in the chat. As more people enter the site chat, their messages and mouse cursor are different colors so you can better keep track of who is saying what. Users can also stand out on the page better by choosing one of several avatars to display with their message, or they can provide a Web address to a custom avatar to use. When a user has finished chatting or leaving their live message, there is a close button which will end the firefly session.

Firefly is so simple to incorporate into your blog or site and once you have used it enough maneuvering through the options and chatting live with the interface gets easier with time. Firefly, due to its cartoonish look and feel is not going to appeal to everyone, however. Blogs and personal Web sites, possibly online classified and storefronts will be the early adopters, but there will be many business sites that will not mesh with the fun firefly interface and eye-candy.