Chat rooms are online places where people meet to talk about their interests. Political, dating, gardening and sports are just a few of the thousands of topics you can find in chat room listings. From advice chat rooms to business chat rooms, get online, register and be part of the community by sharing your opinions or meeting new friends.

Find the type of room you are looking for by checking the chat room directory. Parents should look for safe chat rooms for their kids. Consider the following when you decide to get involved with chat rooms:

1. Check chat room listings that online communities offer.

2. Create your own local chat rooms for business purposes.

3. Find online chat rooms through Instant Messenger services.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Chat in the web chat rooms of online communities

Online communities today provide a safe way for people to interact. There are communities strictly for children, teenagers or adults. Other types of communities include political groups or online dating communities. Each of these communities typically provides ways for the members to communicate with each other and the most popular of these methods is online chat rooms.

I recommend: Myspace has chat rooms on a wide variety of topics. Just click your topic, choose the exact room and begin chatting with people who share your interest. You do have to register first but registration is free. Talk City offers a wide range of topics to talk about or create your own chat and invite others to join you. Register by filling out their form with your name, email address and age, then submit the form and start chatting.

Develop your business chat room to keep communication lines open

Businesses today typically are not located in one single office. Many times different branches are in different cities or states or even out of the country. Getting the employees together for a meeting can be very costly with long distance phone charges so turn to online chat rooms for business communication. Pick which service you want to use and give your employees user ids and passwords. Schedule your meeting and everyone shows up no matter where they are that day.

I recommend: Skype provides group chat with up to 100 people. You can share files, links and type messages to your group. Skype requires you sign up for their service and download the messenger unit but this is free. Vital Sound Laboratory Lan Toucher Messenger offers a messenger and chat unit that allows you to chat with all computers on your network. Download, install and connect to everyone else in your business organization.

Check chat room websites of Instant Messenger services

Instant messenger services provide safe chat rooms for children, teens and adults to come together to talk and share opinions and ideas. Once you install the messenger service, click on chat, then on the room topic you are interested in, and begin chatting.

I recommend: Yahoo provides a messenger service with chat features. Yahoo provides a list of chat room topics including business, gardening and dating. Just click on the room topic to join the room. For your protection, Yahoo copies all IP addresses when someone joins a chat room. AIM provides a list of chat rooms and you can create your own chat room just for you and your friends. Just click "chat" in the buddy list window, type the screen names of the people you want to invite and press send. You and all of the friends you invited can chat in your own private chat room.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Stay safe in online chat rooms by never providing your full name, address or phone information to others you meet online. Give general information such as your first name and your state.