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I think many "A-Listers" do use IM. I use it every day -- and chatted with Marshall and Sarah throughout the workday on Yahoo! and MSN while at RWW. The reason Meebo never really excited me on a personal level was that using IM in the browser was clumsy compared to Trillian or Digsby, especially whenI had 20 or 30 tabs open researching a post. So the only time I ever used Meebo was when I was on a computer other than mine.
Comparing it to Twitter isn't really fair, too. Many of the posts about Twitter on a daily basis are either about up time problems -- which Meebo should be glad they don't have -- or apps that hook into, rely on, or extend Twitter. Meebo just doesn't have as vibrant of a third party developer ecosystem.
Otherwise welcome to the web a lot of more normal people use. Meebo is great. I'm stunned you never heard of it.
And when I am "in control" of the firewall, like at home or when I am travelling, I prefer a more flexible and "out of the browser" multi-protocol client such as Trillian anyway.
It's clear you haven't watched my video. I interviewed them more than a year ago, so I clearly have heard of it. It's just that I don't see many people talking about Meebo on the tech blogs.
Define "normal."
"verb (videoes, videoed) film or make a video recording of. "
You talk a big game here, so why aren't you using Meebo Rooms on your blog?
Access to my mail, my blogger account, my photos, my documents, my calendar.
Fail!
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/00112...
Could it be possible that the people on Meebo are using IE because they are locked down in a work environment (and thus can't install firefox, ICQ, MSN, etc, etc.)?
That's certainly what it was like when we were at uni.
Almost like having a double life - two wives!
Which means tech bloggers may mainly be feeding the hype and don't really care about usability and users need, focusing on new new new (did I say new?) products and services. In the end they're what people want to read, they make people dream and think. And that's a lot to do.
If the A-Listers don't bother talking about it, there isn't much buzz for it.
Doesn't matter though, I've seen many of the younger generation (people in middle and high school now) who use Meebo almost exclusively. For them it's the best way to chat, and they can use it to get around the fact that AIM clients rarely work in schools.
Meebo will be successful regardless of whether or not the A-List bloggers talk about it.
That doesn't mean it's any better or worse than Twitter mind you, they are both fantastic products. I personally love twitter because I can't stay connected to a stream of IMs all day, and it gives me a quick glance into what the people that I'm interested in, are talking about.
Just because there isn't as much buzz, doesn't mean you don't have a successful product.
1. No File Transfer
2. No Video Chat
3. No Audio Chat
4. I can't search my chat history
I just don't see using Twitter and Meebo in the same blog post. Twitter is an entirely different service. It has nothing to do with bloggers or A-listers.
You're mistaken, Meebo actually supports those features.
When you load an IM window, you'll see a button for both file transfer and video/audio chat. Chat logs are viewable, also.
Craig
I am prepping for an upcoming presentation and I needed to checkout Meebo. I do not like that it requires a window open; checking out Pidgin - my girlfriend likes it better, runs an executable. Share my results later...
When was the last time you visited Meebo? If you logon with a Meebo account they have:
1. File Transfer
2. Video/Audio Chat (though I don't really use this)
3. Chat history with searching features (assuming you turn this on)
Sure Meebo requires keeping a tab or window open (they have a sidebar feature for Firefox users) but with Prism and Fluid you can have a "separate app".
Personally, the biggest benefit to using Meebo is that I can actually look up the chat logs anywhere I logon to Meebo-I never have to worry about synchronizing my logs. Using Meebo is like being able to archive all your mail in Gmail.
It's just a bad Trillian gone webby, crashy too, hardly worth wetting your pants over. Plus tons of disadvantages, no picture/file sharing, no advanced features, no video/webcams.
It's real popular with the kidddies at school, as they can use it to circumvent IM blocking, but outside of that target market, they have nothing. If you hang out on Meebo to "do research" you will just find the same type of 'MySpace cadets', only younger with shorter attention spans, speaking in illiterate IMese code all day long, and that's not mainstream it's still niche. God help us if it ever does become mainstream.
It's only real advantage is "remote access", when not at a computer of your own, but the primary audience usually always is, excepting school, and would be much better served with a multi-service IM client.
In that case they should be covering Meebo big time. 35 million users vs. 2. Chat is a big trend and a monetizeable one, too.
We are such a small percentage of the overall everything, we need to be aware of this and pay much more attention to the non-tech world and way of doing things.
twitter, friendfeed, and digg aren't the future of the web (as companies, anyway). the future of the web will come from the meebos and plurks and tumblrs and picniks of the world -- none of which are popular with the techy/twitter crowd.
The Dutch answer!
Are you still updating "Elements of Style?"
I've been using meebo since the alpha in 2005 and since day one, they've been my IM client of choice. No install, cross-IM-vendor support, good buddy-list management, FF plugin, works on port 80 to subvert firewall restrictions, great UI, unobtrusive ads, free, fast, skinnable, etc.
My history with IM:
http://feedhaus.blogspot.com/2007/11/my-love-af...
One of the meebo applications I built:
http://feedhaus.blogspot.com/2007/11/introducin...
Bruce, I'd love to update it. But Strunk thinks we should incorporate text writing
Is that still one of the top most popular websites out there in hits and searches and relevance is still The Drudgereport. And it's not a blog, a feed, doesn't even have RSS capability. It's just plain old fashioned Internet muckraking by hand.
Anyway, great post Robert! First time you've got me to comment and I've been following your blog since January...
As some of these comments show though, it's clear to see why what Tech enthusiasts think simply doesn't equate to mainstream appeal. The success of Meebo is because 90% of people who use IM, use it because they just want to chat to their friends!
File transfers, sharing, all those extra features... who cares really. The reality is Meebo is successful because it works just about everywhere and anywhere and does exactly what the mainstream wants... chat.
Most people don't want to post for everyone else to see it, they just want to have personal conversations with their friends, but several friends simultaneously and separately, Meebo suits their needs perfectly.
http://www.helpmetogeta5d.tk/
Meebo me??? :)
I would a lot of people use Meebo is becuase they cant install anything (work, school etc) so wouldn't have firefox anyway. However they probably should fix that soon.
Think P& G.. most people know their products.. few people can associate the or the company !
PS: I didnt know your name for a long time but I knew your blog for a long time ( I dont notice Robert) ..
Cheers
Olga Lednichenko
Cheers
Olga Lednichenko
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