[tuxxy]

Why can't you just store the chat data locally and search it there? Chat data is already small enough, it just needs to be stored in a searchable format.

You don't need to store all of it either, just store the past month or so (or store what the user chooses to store). When the user needs data in the past, the user can download that data from the dates needed.

I have IRC logs with years worth of chat data and they only take up a few MBs.