Hi Mark,

To expand a bit on what Dre said, we did have an issue in recent memory
where libraryh3lp's javascript was loading slowly (presumably due to load
on their servers), and we ameliorated it by loading the javascript
asynchronously:

(function() {
        function scriptLoad() {
        var scriptElement = document.createElement("script");

                scriptElement.src = "http://somewhereelse.org/javascript.js";

         document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
    }

        if(window.addEventListener) {
            window.addEventListener("load", scriptLoad, false);
        } else if ( window.attachEvent ) {
            window.attachEvent("onload",scriptLoad);
        } else {
            window.onload = scriptLoad;
        }
    })();

Basically, this uses JS to add a "script" element that loads the
external JS, and does its level best to trigger that function only
after the page's HTML has loaded, i.e. slowness on the external site
won't prevent the rest of the page from loading.

cheers,

AC


On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 9:06 AM, Mark Baumer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> The library where I work is looking to update its chat services. We use
> Libraryh3lp, at the moment, but have recently had some issues with it
> lagging and slowing down the whole site.
>
> I am interested in hearing opinions on any of the services below as well
> as any other services not listed:
>
> A list of chat services I found being used at other libraries:
> -Libanswers and libchat (springshare)
> -Libraryh3lp
> -Question Point
> -Confluence
> -Various IM options (AOL, gchat, Yahoo, microsoft instant messager)
> -Velaro
> -Mycustomercloud.com
>
> A list of chat services that may or may not be used by any libraries:
> -imo.im
> -Trillian Web
> -Nimbuzz
>
>
> Thank you,
>
> Mark
>