Meebo - All in one IM

I can remember the first time I signed into Yahoo messenger all those years ago. I encouraged many of my friends to sign up for a Yahoo account just so they could use this wonderful new technology with me. In fact, I remember seeing recently a TXT somewhere on a backup disc that contained a transcript of a chat with AL-9000 (yeah, I was geeky then, too).

Then along came AIM. "Meh, who needs more than one of these things anyway?" I thought to myself, "Besides, all my friends are on Yahoo".

Such was not the case for too long, especially after the introduction of iChat. Even I, an ardent AOL hater, signed up for a free AIM account just so I could use this new IM client. Eventually, a dilemma evolved: how do I monitor all of my Buddy Lists at once? A better question: is there an easier way to monitor them all without having to open up all of these programs.

In fact, many people wondered the same thing, and consequently many solutions have sprung up over the years. My new personal discovery: Meebo. Not only do they allow for AIM, Yahoo, MSN, GoogleTalk, ICQ, and Jabber accounts, but they also have a nifty feature called MeeboMe that lets you put a "live chat" box (or whatever you want to call it) right on your blog (um, take a look to the right). Any visitor who wants to drop a line or chat love can do so through the Meebo widget, and it's as if they were on your buddy list.

You don't download Meebo; it's web-based and you let it stay open somewhere on your screen. Besides that the only downside I can see so far is no audio/video chat, but that's not uncommon. Oh, and let's hope you don't get MeeboMe'd to death from randoms who want to tell you how awesome your blog is....we do have actual jobs and work to do, after all.

:)