One of the greatest things about the internet is that it makes comunication quick and easy. The most prominent methods of communication online are e-mail, IM, chat, forums and intra-website communication.
Most forms of communication via the internet fall into serveral categories and while they can all be used simultaneously, you will probably tend to rely on some more than others. This will be influenced by personal preference and by the people with whom you will be communicating. If you will mostly be talking with people you already know, you will probably choose the fastest mehod of communication: IM or instant messenger. On the other hands, forums and chatrooms provide better outlets for meeting new people whereas e-mail communication sometimes works better for long term or permanent messages. Also, you will find a wide variety of intra-community (or website) communication tools.
Methods of communication are sometimes considered real time which means that you are communicating instantly or immediately. If you tell someone about an event which is occuring, you are able to tell them at the speed at which it occurs.
Communication tools are also divided into categories depending upon how they are used. Communication is either considered browser- or web-based which means you access the method of communication on the IRC by surfing to a web-site in your browser or program-based (application-based). A program-based communication tool means that you have downloaded a program to your computer and you are able to converse via logging on to that program rather than logging onto a website.
E-mail can either be browser-based or used via an e-mail applications and is not considered real time.
Forums are web-based communication services which are also not considered real time.
Chatrooms can be either browser-based (HTML or Java chat) or application based (IRC) and are considered real time.
Instant Messengers are program-based communication tools which are consider real time.
Intra-community communication is extremely varied but is browser-based as it is contained with one web-site or a network of web-sites.
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