User blog comment:Ohmyn0/What's Going on with Chat/@comment-3279487-20110505214018/@comment-118323-20110506212752

We toyed with the idea of where to place the chat and ultimately decided that a separate window allows you to navigate around the site with your main browser window while the chat sits off to the side or behind. We're going to include a notifications system so you know when new messages occur (if you're busy on the main site.)