I think HipChat is hard to beat in this area. We've been testing it at work, and early thoughts are very positive. They have native (Adobe Air, but much better than what I'm used to), mobile and web clients covered, some IRC-like commands and a cool @mention notification system.

It looks like this uses a chat server on alagu.net (https://github.com/alagu/gmail-irc/blob/master/chrome_extens...) but presumably you could run your own server as it appears to be a fork of https://github.com/chrismatthieu/CHATS.iO.

Yes, it is just a modification of http://chats.io/ running on my domain.

I would suggest making it clear to users that the chats run through an external server.

> Your data on all websites > Your tabs and browsing activity

Why does the extension need this level of access in Chrome?

"IRC" is a bit of a misnomer; it looks like it's web sockets connecting to a custom server, unless I missed something.

Sure it's not IRC per se, but it is persistent chat based on topic, much like IRC.

I'm not seeing much of a problem being solved here, but the implementation seems pretty nice.

I wasn't able to find Skype/IRC like chat-room for my company (gmail) account. So I built this. Hipchat seems to be an option but it doesn't integrate with GMail.

I don't get it. What does this do other than move a tool from being a 1st class gui member to relegating it to inside of gmail?

- It saves the trouble of setting up your own irc server & asking your colleagues to log in to irc client everyday.

- It is inside Gmail and the entire server is specific to your domain. So you could create permanent (or) throw away chat rooms of specific context ( #devteam, #ops, #qa, #yournewfeature)

- GMail doesn't offer chats on email threads, this is an alternative to it.

>asking your colleagues to log in to irc client everyday

So I'll ask them to keep gmail open all the time instead? If only there were a single program that was unquestionably open all the time when they were using their computers that housed other programs. One that, like you do with gmail, could be set up to start a chat client when started. Oh well, I can always dream.

I wish this wouldnt need a chrome extension, but otherwise its pretty sweet!

With a few more features, that could be a great alternative to campfire.

Chrome only? Why not Firefox?