Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet that offers a real-time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Chat messages are generally short in order to enable other participants to respond quickly. Thereby, a feeling similar to a spoken conversation is created, which distinguishes chatting from other text-based online communication forms such as Internet forums and email. Online chat may address point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers and voice and video chat, or may be a feature of a web conferencing service.
Online chat in a less stringent definition may be primarily any direct text-based or video-based (webcams), one-on-one chat or one-to-many group chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing), using tools such as instant messengers, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), talkers and possibly MUDs. The expression online chat comes from the word chat which means "informal conversation". Online chat includes web-based applications that allow communication – often directly addressed, but anonymous between users in a multi-user environment. Web conferencing is a more specific online service, that is often sold as a service, hosted on a web server controlled by the vendor.
The first online chat system was called Talkomatic, created by Doug Brown and David R. Woolley in 1973 on the PLATO System at the University of Illinois. It offered several channels, each of which could accommodate up to five people, with messages appearing on all users' screens character-by-character as they were typed. Talkomatic was very popular among PLATO users into the mid-1980s. In 2014, Brown and Woolley released a web-based version of Talkomatic.
The first online system to use the actual command "chat" was created for The Source in 1979 by Tom Walker and Fritz Thane of Dialcom, Inc.
The first transatlantic Internet chat took place between Oulu, Finland and Corvallis, Oregon in February 1989. [1]
The first dedicated online chat service that was widely available to the public was the CompuServe CB Simulator in 1980,[2][3] created by CompuServe executive Alexander "Sandy" Trevor in Columbus, Ohio. Ancestors include network chat software such as UNIX "talk" used in the 1970s.
FHM's 100 Sexiest Women is an annual listing compiled by the monthly British men's lifestyle magazine FHM, based on which women they believe to be the "sexiest". As of 2017, each year's list is first announced through a section on FHM's official website, FHM.com. The first listing was published in 1995 and was voted for by a panel of 250 judges; the inaugural winner was the German supermodel Claudia Schiffer. From 1996 to 2015, the poll was instead voted for by the general public, with, at its height, several million votes being cast each year. Subsequent winners included the British singer Cheryl, the American actress Halle Berry, and Jennifer Lopez.[nb 1] At 36 years old, Berry was the oldest woman ever to top the listing, while Lopez was the first to top it more than once. By the time FHM ceased publication of its print edition in January 2016, the 100 Sexiest Women list had been compiled 21 times.[2] The current holder of the Sexiest Woman title is the Israeli actress Gal Gadot.
Alongside the 100 Sexiest Women list, FHM has also twice published a "Most Eligible Bachelorettes" list, in 2006 and 2007, to celebrate qualities such as "talent, star quality and cash".[3] These lists were topped by the American actress Mischa Barton and the American socialite Kimberly Stewart, respectively. To commemorate the 10th and 20th anniversaries of the 100 Sexiest Women list, two one-off charts were compiled in April 2004 and May 2014, respectively, to recognise the sexiest women up to those points. The winner of the 2004 list was the English singer Louise Redknapp, who had placed on every 100 Sexiest list since 1996, while the 2014 chart topper was the English singer Rachel Stevens, who had peaked at number two in 2001, 2002, and 2004.
