AJChat is a great and simple solution to create public chatrooms that utilizes Ajax to bring you real-time chatting. I have been testing around with it with Michael Arrington (See his review) and we liked it. The main thing that sparked my interest was that you can create your own chat in no time and then include it into your site. Simply go to AJChat, type in a name, and then click, “Enter.” So, I created a test SolutionWatch chatroom where Mike, Jeff Clavier and I gave it our rounds of testing. You can see a more active stream of communication going on over at TechCrunch’s Chat in his review of AJChat.

Overall, it seems to be a great solution. There were some issues here and there, and they mostly seem to appear when a larger audience is using the chat at one time. I experienced a repetitive comment problem and an alert error about max user connections that looked like a database issue. Some things that I think would be great is to allow for more customization if including into a website. Simple color changes and font settings would do. I also would love to see some type of notification of a new message. For example, if a new message is added, have JavaScript make the title of the browser flash on and off so it diverts some attention to it. Other than that, hopefully the creator can get some of the issues sorted out because it really is a great solution. Quick and easy. You can also keep up with the AJChat Blog for updates.

View AJChat - Simple Ajax-based Chatrooms.

Update: It looks like the server is down at the moment. Sorry! It was a lot of fun while it was up and we had a pretty active stream of conversation using it at TechCrunch. I saw a lot of familar names in it too, so it was pretty exciting to talk to everyone. The creators of AJChat have gotten back to me and said they are working on the problems, so lets hope that it gets up again soon.

Update: AJChat has made a post about the service being down. Here is a message from the AJChat Blog that states their service was deactivated by their hosting provider and they are switching to a new host soon.

Update: Kiat has informed me in the comments that the service is back up and running. Go give it a try. Arrington, up for another run? :)