The future of the shoutbox

The reason why i like shoutbox might not match with Gi Nattak's reason, anyway i like it due to the way i use it:
1) when i enter FF6hacking.com the first thing i read is shoutbox;
2) then i read updates to threads or new ones, starting from the less recent;
3) then to exit from that thread i return on my page, check if shoutbox has new shouts. if i read all threads then i go to 4) else i return to 2)
4) i read PMs and eventually answer them;
5) i return on main page and check if there are new shouts or updates to threads. if that's the case then 1) else i go to 6)
6) quit ff6hacking.com.

aside the fact that it's an algorythm   well, the point is not that i participate or read shoutbox because i want to do it as main purpose... i do it because i indirectly see it each time i access the main page between an action and another one.
The point is not even of keep it as desktop application if i don't want to access the chat just for the chat itself... the only reason why i communicated with skype after a year or two was because an update of Outlook added an automatic login side window to skype, so while i was reading my email i was even able to see if there was any post in skype: if Outlook didn't add that feature, probably skype would stayed close for another year.
Yeah, the point is i don't even want to open/close it as separate window, no matter how much fast the login/logout is it... when i close all stuff and i go back to hack/study/anything else that requires my concentration, having a window that tells me immediately that there's a new post/shout would hinder my activity.
Obiously there's no point in having that app if you don't even use it, at the same time it's not efficient opening 2 windows when you could have both the 2 things in the same page... pro and cons heavily depends on the personal point of view of each person.

Said that i'm looking forward to see that API being released.