Meebo Makes Moves to Connect Communities

Tue, Oct 21, 2008

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Many of us already know Meebo as the Web 2.0 application that helps us access all our Instant Messaging accounts in one place. This means you no longer have to install separate software for each service you want to chat on. It doesn’t even matter where you are, you can always login to the Meebo website on the nearest web browser to stay connected. Services include Yahoo, AIM, GTalk, and MSN to name a few.

Connecting Communities

Not satisfied with nearly unifying Instant Messaging, Meebo announced Community IM this past July. This will allow social websites to provide a live chat experience to their communities. Those familiar with Facebook chat will find the interface quite familiar. According to TechCrunch, there are already 19 companies that have partnered with Meebo to add IM to their websites.

The newest enlistments include Bleacher Report, Dhingana, Fanpop, GlobalGrind, IBeatYou, OrangeShark, PerfSpot, UGAME.net, Yaari, Zinch, and Zorpia. These join a set of previously announced partners that includes DanceJam, Flixster, myYearbook, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group’s AddictingGames, Piczo, SparkArt, Sugar Publishing and Tagged. That’s a grand total of 19 companies that believe instant messaging within the browser will make their sites stickier.

Meebo’s underlying infrastructure is Jabber/XMPP, which means that Community IM can tie into most of your favorite messaging services. This setup will also allow for communication between different Meebo communities. For instance, if you’re a member of the Tagged community, you may also be able to chat with people over on GlobalGrind.

How Does it Work?

Meebo Community IM will provide you with a status bar along the bottom of a partner website. Using this bar, you can see who is online, send/receive messages, and even talk to buddies on different networks. You won’t have to install any software. You will even have the option to “pop out” your chat session so that you can keep in touch even after you have left the website.

You can see more of what Community IM will be capable of in their slideshow demo on the Community IM website.

Tags: community im, meebo

This post was written by:

rahsheen - who has written 109 posts on Black Web 2.0.

Rahsheen has been a certified geek since before it was cool. He has been a programmer since the 4th grade and is familiar with most languages. Now, Rahsheen mostly blogs about social media and web 2.0 as they relate to increasing quality of life and getting things done. He has released a few GreaseMonkey/AHK scripts and he is active in the video micro-blogging community. He is also a musician, singer+rapper, writer and producer. Find Rahsheen on Twitter as @rahsheen or visit his site SheenOnline

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Navarrow Wright

Globalgrind.com is excited to be partnered with meebo to deliver IM capabilities to our audience. We are are also proud to be the only partner catering to the urban space in the partner list.

blackweb20

I noticed you all were the only Urban site, when do you plan to role this out?

Herb

Hi, Angela and Navarrow. BlackBottom.com is integrating Meebo's Community IM solution into our website, as well. It's good to see other Urban sites doing the same. We'll give a shout-out upon release; thanks.

Herb.
http://www.blackbottom.com

blackweb20

That's great news Herb! Can't wait to see your release, the more the merrier!

Herb

Yes, they're rolling out partners sequentially, so we're just hanging in the queue... Meanwhile, I've Twitted on BlackBottom's minor updates.

Herb

Instant Messaging now integrated into BlackBottom.com. And we don't stop...