ReadWriteWeb

Having grown up during the transition from mainframes to PCs and worked in IT when we were first installing PCs, I find it amusing to see how people return now and then to the topic of collaboration in the Internet and SaaS era. Last month media pundit Jeff Jarvis weighed in with his comments here. Notably, he says:

Chatroulette, the face-to-face random video chat service, is growing slightly less random. The service is adding Localroulette, for location-specific chats, and Channelroulette, for specific topics.

Given the surge of interest in location-based apps, the choice to create a geolocating chat is not surprising. The utility of the themed channels is a bit less easy to grasp once you see what's there.

Instant messaging client Trillian announced on its blog today that an Android version will be available within a couple of weeks.

Trillian dovetails IM from a host of services into one platform, including Facebook Chat, Windows Live, Yahoo!, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber/XMPP and MySpaceIM. It will support Android back to version 1.6.

Social networking site MySpace has just launched a new version of their mobile website designed for iPhone, Android and Palm WebOS users. The now-improved site at m.myspace.com offers quick access to your profile, including comments, your activity stream, your status, your inbox and more. Also available is a button dedicated to your photos, which makes it easier to browse through your albums. However, the most notable of the new features is the built-in instant-messaging function which makes the new mobile website a communication tool in addition to being just another social-networking app.

Yesterday, Google Translate announced the addition of Persian into their roster of supported languages in order to facilitate online communication within and from Iran.

Now, at least one team - the minds behind BabelWith.me - has developed the functionality into a cool, useful chat application that capably (if not perfectly) translates chats in real time. The service enables simultaneous communication in up to 45 different languages. It's kind of like the U.N. of IM.

Nearly three years ago, internet users were buzzing about the upcoming new version of the multi-network instant messaging program from Trillian, a software application that would be called "Astra." But as time went on, Trillian just couldn't deliver. Eventually, we all moved on...to Digsby, to Meebo, and to plain ol' Google Talk, which we could easily access from our email inboxes.

Embedded chat for real-time communication has been a core part of Meebo's offering for a while. Their latest release of new features focuses on integrating social platforms to allow for cross-network sharing of content.

"SEO has been a great way for web sites to acquire new users, and will continue to be," said CEO Seth Sternberg in am email last night. "At the same time, site owners are looking for the next great way to attract additional users. i think that 'social graph optimization' can be the next SEO - making it really easy for your users to share content from your site to their friends, be they on social networks, IM networks, in email, etc."

Zoho, the web office company that competes with Google's online tools (and does so quite well), has introduced a new feature to their online suite of productivity applications: Zoho Chat 2.0. Built atop the original Zoho Chat platform, this iteration now integrates all the major instant messaging networks. But a multi-protocol IM client is not the big news - it's the fact that Zoho Chat 2.0 is integrated within the majority of the company's applications to allow for real-time collaboration with colleagues.

Popular Mac multi-service IM software Adium will include sophisticated support for Twitter in its next version, Adium has announced on its blog. Instant messaging access has been shut off for months and isn't coming back any time soon, the company confirmed in October, but Adium has built its own system.

Adium's Zac West posted screenshots to the official blog and the implementation looks great. The plan was announced this weekend but just now noticed by The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Particls, the one-time RSS feed organizer and alerting service, has today launched a new project they're calling "Particls Fountain." Although it's hinted that the service will eventually do much more, today its goal is simple. Particls Fountain will function as a replacement for the long-gone Twitter Track feature that once allowed you to follow topics of interest by keyword.