Hab.la was definitely something I came across and (briefly) evaluated. And here’s why I didn’t go with it.

It appears that the source of the script (that you paste on your site) is loaded from the hab.la site, and all communication with various chat services is routed through the Hab.la web site.

There arise two major concerns right there: Performance and Privacy.

For heavy traffic sites where I’m trying to use a chat gadget, I am definitely not comfortable using a third-party free service, where all of my communications with my site visitors are not only routed through a ‘free’ service (which does not have much credibility in my view), but also the more sites that use this service, the slower their servers are going to get. And no one could possibly support tens of thousands of requests for free without running out of resources at some point. So, for long term use, this didn’t look too appealing.

I would rather trust Google or Yahoo – or a paid service – rather than a little web site offering everything for free.

But I would love to hear about your specific experience back here in the comments.

Thanks for reading – and commenting!

- Ravi

Here’s something better – because it works with your favourite chat client. And for Mac users it’s even easier, because it works with Adium and iChat: http://www.hab.la/

I didn’t see HOW to customize the gadget style?

Also, does it mean you have to log-in to google to show it active?

You weren’t active…and I would have loved to test it out. So I’ll probably Be BAAACK!

Why are they hiding it? Our gain for sure.

Keith