After fiddling around with Xat’s new LINK power, I’ve figured out a few things…

Here’s how to use it:

1. First activate the link power in your own chat. Type (LINK), hit enter, click on the link power smiley, click “activate”.

2. Go to your chat admin and activate the LINK power by selecting the corresponding checkbox.

3. In the box to the right of the link power you’ll want to type your KEYWORD (I’ve chosen “colors” as an example”, a comma, and your **Bit.ly shortened URL code.

** Bit.ly is a well-known URL shortening website. You’ll need to convert all your LINK URL’s using that website and you will only need last part of that shortened url (see images below).

Here’s are some screenshots that better illustrate how everything works:

This is the bit.ly url shortener:

This is the chat admin. You’ll see that I’ve activated LINK by clicking it’s checkbox, I’ve entered my keyword “colors”, I’ve added a comma, and I’ve added my bit.ly shortened URL code:

After clicking “update these options”, enter your chat and type your keyword. Below is the end result. My keyword “colors” has become an underlined link that redirects to bit.ly/9SBFj0, which in turn links to my Xatworld color codes page

That’s it…

Update: after a little trial and error, we’ve found out the following…
1. you can’t use any uppercase letters
2. you can’t use spaces (i.e. “COLOR CODES” wouldn’t work)
3. there’s a 100 500 character limit (*sigh*) so choose your links wisely

With the upcoming release of Xat’s new, and long awaited (at least for me) LINK power, several users have asked “what does it do”.

Link, much like Xat’s own “wiki”, “twitter”, “buy” and “xats”, allows you to personalize your chat with your own custom set of underlined keywords. Those keywords can then “link” to any URL of your choosing.

Example from the xat_test chat:

We don’t have the specifics on what is/isn’t allowed, but we imagine (hope really) that Xat will keep certain keywords from being modified; “register” comes to mind. Still we see the potential for something really scary. What’s to prevent a user from creating their own keywords, coupled with a cleverly crafted phishing page, to scam the unsuspecting out of their accounts? Even if “register” were kept under lock and key, couldn’t someone just create “REGlSTER” (that “I” is really a lowercase “L”)? We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.

You can preview this power along with Xat’s new snowy pawn, right now, at the http://xat.com/xat_test chat.

We’ll update this post if/when we have more information.