It’s been just over a month since the introduction post of the ‘Living in the cloud’ series of post. I’m going to kicking it off with an important part for all you social users out there (you know who you are), instant messaging.
Normally, a typical user would use a desktop client such as GTalk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo and AIM. To aggregate all these services one can use clients such as Digsby, Pidgin and Trillian. But what if you’d like the same features across all desktops you use? In comes Meebo!
What is Meebo?
Meebo lets users gather their friends on a single buddy list where they can communicate in real-time across different IM platforms, communities, and traditional social networks.
At meebo.com and with Meebo for partner sites, users can keep in touch with friends across dozens of IM platforms, including AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, MySpace IM, Facebook Chat, and more. With 50 million people sharing over 5 billion messages and 75 million links every month, Meebo is one of the Web’s fastest growing social media companies.
Screenshot of chat client (of course, i blurred out all personal info)
So Meebo is an easy centralized way to IM on Yahoo, MSN, GTalk, Facebook, Jabber and ICQ. There are a couple of ways to chat on Meebo:
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Keep your conversations in a tab in your browser
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Keep your conversations in a separate browser window
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Pop the client and all chat windows out of browser for a more native feel.
You can also install a notifier app which will display new message and logins info as displayed below:
Update: Meebo also supports voice and video chat in browser. The quality is very impressive and carries a great native feel.
This seems to be a lightweight option as it only take about 6MB of RAM.
Overall i find Meebo to be a great alternative to multiple IM clients or an all-in-one. I use a desktop PC , a notebook and occasionally public computers at school and i love having the same friend list everywhere i log on. I especially like having the ability to be reached via Facebook chat when I’m not on Facebook stalking.
So check out Meebo!
Tags: cloud, cloud computing, meebo
