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"Meebo, the massively popular web-based IM service, has launched an impressive new product today.  MeeboMe allows you to put a Flash-powered IM widget on blogs, websites and social networks like MySpace, Tagworld and Multiply.\nMeebo, you might remember, lets you log in to your AIM, ICQ, Jabber, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger accounts from a single webpage at Meebo.com.  You can also store all your passwords on the site, allowing you to log in with a single Meebo username and password.  Today they've gone a step further, creating a new way for site owners to speak with their visitors.\n\nTo start, you go to MeeboMe, create a widget and then copy and paste the code to your webpage.  Once that's in place, any visitors to your site will show up in your buddylist on Meebo.com.  By default, new visitors are assigned a name like \"MeeboGuest34\", but they can change their handle using the widget.  If the visitor types a message in the box, it appears in the owner's Meebo account as a new instant message and they can start a conversation.  It also works the other way around: the website owner can initiate a chat from Meebo.com to one of his visitors.  \nIn future releases, visitors will be able to log in to the widget using their Meebo usernames.   The Meebo folks also plan to add group chat, which could lead to something akin to Gabbly or 3 Bubbles.  Tech-savvy users don't even need to visit Meebo to chat with their users - you can also access the service from any Jabber client.  \nMeeboMe isn't a totally new idea - a service called Chatango has been promoting its \"Chatango box\" for use on Windows Live Spaces, LiveJournal, Piczo, MySpace, Friendster, hi5 and eBay.  However, eBay has already banned MeeboMe, and will probably block Chatango, too (if they haven't already).  The reason is pretty simple: they want to put Skype on eBay pages instead.  \nObviously bloggers will relish the opportunity to speak to their users directly, but it seems that MeeboMe will be just as disruptive over on MySpace.  We already know that a large proportion of Meebo users are college kids who can't use regular IM clients at school, so the majority of those users will also have MySpace accounts.  Connect the dots and you could have something very interesting.  What's more, putting a widget on your MySpace page would allow you to track how many visitors are hitting your profile at any one time.\nThis company is on a roll - rivals like KoolIM and Mabber don't even come close. Just last week Meebo was added to Netvibes, the ajax startpage.  With over 30 million users and a heavily trafficked site, e-Messenger (now eBuddy) is still the leader in the web-based IM space, but the newcomer is gaining on them fairly rapidly.  Meebo is definitely one to watch.\n\n\nFor more messengers, see MySpace IM, Tagworld IM and AIM Pro."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2006/08/02/meebome-adds-meebo-im-to-myspace/>