Show HN: Husky Chat, a Chrome extension that overlays a chatroom on any website

http://www.huskylab.co/

by helloericho • 14 years ago

37 23 14 years ago

helloericho12• 14 years ago

Hi guys!

We made this Chrome extension (w/ Node.js + MongoDB in the back) that overlays a chatroom on top of websites - the idea is, if you want to discuss a certain article / website with other people, all you have to do is install the extension and open it on the given page, to talk to other users.

Say that you are on HN, we give you the ability to chat with whoever else is there reading the same article!

We also have a "Lobby" feature, so you can talk to everyone else on at the same time (that might not be on the same site you're on)

We think this could be a good tool for say - students who want to discuss homework assignments, shoppers who want to make a last minute purchasing decision, or sports fans who want to vent with one another. It's a good way to connect passionate people of the same community!

Still super early - would love get your thoughts on it! Features you wanna see, etc.

Try it out! We will be waiting on the HN homepage!

helloericho12• 14 years ago

Folks - we're talking about some of these comments over using Husky Chat at http://news.ycombinator.com/ right now - come join us :)

mikkel• 14 years ago

Very cool - I've seen website plugins that embed a chatroom, but never a chatroom plugin that lists active websites as rooms.

A couple of issues:

* The badge indicating the number of connected users looks like a notification you would get when someone has conversed.

* The lobby has less users connected than the main chat. I dont understand this if it consists of all connected users.

* Trending is amazing and should highlighted more.

Ideas:

* Market and use this like an active reddit. What are users reading and real time discussions.

* Market this towards a specific (large) community. You need an audience for the value of chatrooms to shine.

* Create a widget to embed on a website. Easiest way to grab a community IMO.

* Gamify with points and/or achievements. Basically look at how gamification works in stack overflow or even here on Hacker News and take whats best. It's extremely important on social products (which chatrooms are).

The hardest part I see for this idea is overcoming the Graveyard. Once users begin to use it, then it becomes way more valuable.

helloericho12• 14 years ago

Mikkel - thanks again for the feedback!

I've jotted down your other comments during the chat as well, but just wanted to say thanks here again :)

Definitely agree on the graveyard issue, will work on it.

phpnode• 14 years ago

I don't mean to sound negative but doesn't someone try this (browser-extension-based-multi-website-chat) every 2 years or so and the problem is they never gain enough traction, so basically every room is empty? what makes this one different?

helloericho12• 14 years ago

We are going to work with more community managers to help us push the usage - this implementation is useful for these guys who manage groups, who can't / won't implement chat solutions on sites.

I think some of the solutions that came before get taken over by trolls / spammers, so we're going with the oAuth approach, which we believe provides better content/conversation.

The empty room issue is still going to be a big one, we hope features like "trending" and that combination with push from community managers, can help resolve that issue.

We're going to try this again!

jeffo• 14 years ago

How do you guys plan to make money from this?

helloericho12• 14 years ago

Looking at reporting / analytics for sites - aggregated, of course.

mijail• 14 years ago

Why the log in? I don't trust you enough to give you all of my information. Let me play with it first then ask me to sign in after we trust each other.

helloericho12• 14 years ago

To cut down on trolls, we decided to start off with oAuths to take care of that issue (hopefully)... thoughts?

18pfsmt• 14 years ago

I remember this (the trolling issue) was a slight problem when SiteChat[1] was submitted to HN. However, it does add to the sign-up friction, so I'm not sure if the trade-off is worth it or not.

[1]http://www.chrome-plugins.info/detail/affmlbhoebcjponkmlmoei...

AlexMuir• 14 years ago

It feels like I've seen lots of these chat clients on ShowHNs. Isn't there even a YC-backed one? TinyChat or something?

This one is nicely done though - here are my immediate thoughts on tweaks (mostly ideas from other in the chat rooms, but I've got a few mins so thought I'd summarize them here.)

* Move it to aggregate chatrooms by domain name

* Add a 'Always chat on this site' checkbox that pops it open whenever I visit HN.

* Remove the lobby

* Change "5 online" to say "5 people" or similar

* It needs history desperately. Just the last 10 comments would do as a start.

helloericho12• 14 years ago

Alex - thanks again for joining the chat, bunch of super awesome feedback, will look into this.

Biggest = move to domain/subdomain level chat right now, and the history!

intellegacy• 14 years ago

After installing this I have no idea how to open this huskychat or how it works.

ediT: nevermind. it's working now. After install, it wasn't doing anything upon clicking on the husky icon for several minutes.

edit 2: if I signed in with google already, why am I being asked to signup?

helloericho12• 14 years ago

Hey there -

It's one of the problems with Chrome extensions right now - you're going to have to use it on a new tab to work.... we're figuring that out.

Also - agreed! We just thought we might give people an option, but looks like that's an extra step, so we'll fix our workflow!

w0ts0n• 14 years ago

I don't like the way we have to basically hand over our twitter accounts. Those are some nasty T&C's

helloericho12• 14 years ago

We will simplify!

bkanber• 14 years ago

I made one of these a little over a year ago, for fun:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sitechat/affmlbhoe...

We don't store logins, messages, or logs on any DB so it's ostensibly anonymous. You can use a nickname but you can't register.

It launched to a ton of early success. Thousands of simultaneous users for a few months, then it just fizzled and died. Good luck.

helloericho12• 14 years ago

Hey - thanks so much. Do you think you'll have some time to chat? Let us know, I'm at eric[at]huskylab.co

richforrester2• 14 years ago

The fact that this has been tried before (again and again) doesn't as much mean that it's doomed to fail, as that it's doomed to succeed at some point, so +karma for trying.

It would be awesome to find a way to make this work, and yes, it does sound like it's more of a marketing issue than anything technical.

I like the OAUTH solution. It's a bit facebook-ey to stick the name/face to the user, but it's fair.

Personally (and I do mean personally) I'd love to see it able to create "private" rooms for staging servers (web development) and admin-panels so I can instruct employees from halfway across the globe. I realize that's quite niche though, and not much of a market, but there it is.

helloericho12• 14 years ago

Thank you! Yes, we're going to try this again, see if we can market it somehow differently.

Re: "private" rooms, we are thinking about this, just need to figure out an elegant solution...!

richforrester2• 14 years ago

Yep, no worries. We spoke in chat afterwards ;)

Show HN: Husky Chat, a Chrome extension that overlays a chatroom on any website

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