Archive for the ‘Stuff’ Category

Meebo chat widget

May 16th, 2007 by ScottK | No Comments | Filed in Stuff

I have came across a really cool web application that is a chat client but for web sites. I’ve been playing around with it for a day or so now and even installed it on my blog at http://www.techraving.com. This allows me real time communication to my visitors, and maybe even you. :)

Meebo, Inc http://www.meebo.com allows you to join their community which reportedly sends around 80 million IM’s a day. A really neat thing about the rooms you can set is that video can be played for all to share. type in a web url and a snap shot is displayed in the media window. After becoming a Meebo user you can also access your MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Google Talk and Jabber accounts as well. Meebo Me widgets allow you to build a chat box for your web site as well. One option is strictly two-way, I chat with you and you chat with me or community chat. Registering for Meebo is relatively painless and quick with just an email verification. Setting up all the multiple types of IM accounts is also easy.

Creating the widgets is a different story. Once I realized that I could embed the room in a web page I had to make choices between public or private, with or without media player, could visitors post video but this depended on the size of the chat. I would also like to point out that the interface is completely browser based so you must keep a web page open. That’s a pain for a web developer like me. However my messages I miss are kept until the next time I log in.

All in all Meebo is a great application for providing my site with visitor interactivity. They have taken great steps in security as well which is a great thing. I’m still waiting to see how it handles spam though.