CatchWord

CatchWord is an online word game in which letters appear on a board and players "catch" words by typing the letters to form approved words of at least four letters. Words are checked against an online dictionary in real time. Each round of eight letters come up for the players. This is all in real time with a 30-45 second time limit per batch of letters. You can use the letters to either create new words or steal them from other players. Words can be stolen from other players by using new letters and their old words. The program figures out where the letters come from when creating or stealing. Any unused letters stay up and only letters used are replaced. This gives you some time to figure out how to use one or two letters to steal a word form someone else.

The letters are worth points and are based on their rarity in the dictionary with J actually being one of the rarest ones and worth the most, so this is not Scrabble. Their are two blank letters which are wild and can be used for any letter you want. Again, the program knows by what is available to use the blank as you intended.

Since this is all happening in real time, the pace can be intense and you start typing in words to steal hoping that a will come up in the next batch. Players gathered from all over the US and Britain to play with smatterings from other countries. It was an English only game and available only through AOL.