Unlike a lot of my colleagues at The Next Web, I primarily use the web version of Twitter. With its latest redesign, I find myself using it more even though I’m tweeting less. I also use DMs as a replacement for text messages for communication with my close friends and family.

Even though Twitter is all about transferring information in real-time, direct messages are still a laggy experience that need tightening up. It’s not a chat, text, or email, but it’s somewhere in between. One of the features that I feel is missing from the Twitter experience is actual real-time chat like you find on Google+ and Facebook.

An extension for Chrome and Firefox called Bonfire integrates a real-time chat experience into the web version of Twitter. It’s extremely well done and fits into the new design quite nicely. Unlike a service we covered last year, Blether, it requires no other tabs or actual tweets to start a conversation.

Don’t DM, just chat

Direct messages on Twitter are still time-shifted, meaning that the conversation taking place doesn’t require either of you to be connected to the Internet while using it. Basically, that means if you have an important question or just want to say hi, there’s no guarantee that you’ll hear back from the person in any set amount of time.

The only way you truly know if someone is “active” on Twitter is based on the last time they tweeted, and that still doesn’t guarantee that you can speak with them immediately unless you want to bug them with a phone call or text message.

That’s why I really like Facebook chat, and why the company decided to break out the experience into a new app called Facebook Messenger. People like presence and instant chat. Basically, they want to know that you’re there at that exact moment.

Since that experience doesn’t exist on Twitter, Bonfire has created a killer extension for Chrome and Firefox that drops a chat layer on top of Twitter’s web experience. It uses its own chat infrastructure so it’ll work even when tweets are delayed and Twitter is having a tough time serving them up at all. After you install Bonfire, the service will look for all of your mutual connections that also use the service.

The chat window and “buddy list” are reminiscent of AOL instant messenger and every chat service thereafter, so it doesn’t take long to figure this thing out. Coupled with alert sounds for when you get a new message, this extension makes the Twitter site feel a lot more like a real-time social network in a way that Facebook nails.

If you don’t want to send someone a message and just want to ask a quick question, a throwaway chat is the perfect alternative. Depending on how many people you follow back on Twitter, you might be up to your ears in direct messages which also generate emails. This type of backup takes the real-time nature out of communication, so Bonfire has done a great job of bringing that to Twitter with this extension.

➤ Bonfire.im

Here are some more, shared from the "Google+ Chat Emoticons” Page on Google+.

For example, this “:3″, will morph into a cat.

Here’s the full list shared today:

:3
:(:)
:(|)
V.v.V
-<@%
~=[,,_,,]:3

We’re not sure if this is an official Google page, but it will be interesting to see what other secret emoticons are unearthed.

Give them a try for yourself!

One of my favorite things to do online is chat. Real-time chats haven’t been done well since the old aol chatroom days where you could enter a room based on the city you were close to, or an interest that you had.

Since aol, apps like Yobongo have tried to bring chat back with real-time serendipitous chats based on your location.

Today a simple app called “Sirkel” was released.

Set your chat Sirkel

By dragging the slider up and down on the right hand side of Sirkel, you can choose how much of the world you’d like to chat with. Your default circle is set to 3 miles.

You log in with your Facebook account, and the app asks you for your location. Once you get going, it’s kind of neat to see new people pop up on the map.

Chatting through your browser

Since Sirkel kept things simple, there is nothing to download. By clicking the photo above the red dot when someone pops up on the map, a chat is started with them. The chat interface is clean, and lays nicely on top of the map.

I could see leaving Sirkel up on my extra monitor, glancing at it once in a while to see if anyone is active. What we miss on Twitter and Facebook is real-time interactions with people that we don’t know. While this might not be something for everyone, it is a nice way to chat outside of your normal circle.

Considering that you can drag around the map, it will be interesting to see which areas embrace Sirkle, if any. The only downside to Sirkel is that there is no “friends list”, so if I chat with someone I have to remember their name, otherwise it’s likely that we’ll never talk again.

Try chatting outside of your default 3 miles, and see who you meet! Since the app requires you to login with Facebook, Sirkel won’t end up being rowdy or crude, since peoples real names are coming along with the incoming chat requests.

We’re very familiar with the question that Twitter asks us, “What’s happening?”. Other than being a reference to an old TV show, Twitter is clearly about what’s going on in the world around you at all times. Real-time streams about winning football teams, tragic deaths, and weather related issues are a hallmark of Twitter’s living and breathing platform.

What if you didn’t have a username tied to a personal identity, and could express whatever you like in an anonymous way? Thotly has decided to build an app for just that. The app is available for both iOS and Android, and lets you add “thots” which will hopefully inspire discussion around a topic. Thotly just wants to know what we’re thinking.

A penny for your Thot

The first thing you’ll notice about the app is that you don’t have to register. There are no requests to add your Facebook, Twitter, or Google accounts, meaning this is a completely anonymous service. I’ve been personally looking for something like this, as I’ve found that answers to questions on Quora are blurred by the fact that people are showing off a bit publicly.

With Thotly, there is no persona to carry, no profile. You don’t even get to have a profile picture. What if Twitter users were stripped completely of bios, friends, and followers? You’d have Thotly.

Conversations range from random thoughts and musings about personal situations, to commentary on recent events like the #Occupy movement.

There are similar anonymous services out there, like the recently launched Anybeat, but Thotly is completely mobile and location based. The location aspect makes the Thots more contextual and perhaps interesting to discuss.

A Thot could be more powerful than a Tweet

When you take away all of the things that cause us to tweet what we tweet, you’re left with only the words. Unfortunately, some of the things I’m most proud of never get read on Twitter. Usually it’s the goofy things I say that get retweeted and discussed.

With Thotly, you have a vanilla platform which is designed with nothing but simplicity in mind. You have a way to share your thoughts openly without getting in trouble at work, or worrying who you’ve upset. If you find a Thot that interests you, you can just reply or favorite it for later. Unfortunately, not being able to add photos or other media types makes Thotly a little too bland.

Will people share their thoughts anonymously?

The downside of the concept of Thotly is that most people probably won’t share their thoughts unless they’re getting some credit for it that they can claim. I find this unfortunate, but perhaps the app can find an underground following of people who just want to have a hassle-free conversation.

Do you think things that you don’t necessarily tweet? Thotly could be a great app for you. If you’re researching a paper, writing an article, or want to have a discussion about the latest events without having to think about who is on the other side of the conversation, give the app a shot.

Thousands of Skype users slammed the new 5.0 Beta for Mac release, complaining about its obtrusive UI.

The amount of white space in chat messages raised a considerable amount of complaining, but thanks to an article from DisruptiveTelephony, we now know how to fix it.

How to create a new chat interface

• Right-click Skype.app in your Applications folder
• Click “Show Package Contents”
• Go into Contents > Resources > ChatStyles. There is only one style there, “Panamericana.” You can open it to then restyle chats through the typical combination of CSS, HTML and JavaScript.
• Installing: Extract the contents of the chat style from a zip file
• Install them into “~/Library/Application Support/Skype/ChatStyles” (create the folder if you need to)
• Restart Skype and then choose your chat style from the Preferences:

Check out PongSocket to download “Panamerica Mini,” a smaller chat style here.

We hope to see a few new Skype chat styles available as this post speeds around the Internet.

N.B. This modification is not available for Skype 5.0 on Windows.

See our complete Skype review here.