Update: I now use Adium. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best IM client to date for Mac that I’m aware of.
Update: I now use Digsby instead of Meebo. Same concept, it just works better and has more features (social networking + IM + Email). Just be sure to be careful when you’re going through the install process. They try to load a bunch of junk on your system.
I rarely read tech/news/affiliate blogs daily anymore so it had been a while since I checked out John Chow’s blog. I’m glad I saw Chow’s post about how he runs his business from a browser because it told me about Meebo. I think I had heard about Meebo a few months/years ago but had never given it a shot. So what is Meebo?
Meebo is essentially one messenger that connects you to all of your other messenger accounts. In other words, I used to open Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, AIM (because for some reason all of the affiliate managers in the world use this archaic messenger) and sometimes Yahoo Messenger on my computer in the morning. Not to mention Facebook messenger. So now all of my contacts are in one place – a browser window. Did you notice that I’m online nearly 24/7 lately? Well, that’s because I have Meebo on my iPod Touch and that’s what I take home to use because I leave my computer at the office now.
I’m sure there are other messenger services like this, but come on guys, John Chow uses it. It’s gotta be pretty rad. My favorite part about Meebo is that it’s browser based. Now I don’t have to open or use any other messenger programs on my PC. I just open the browser window and I’m ready to rock and all of my conversations are in one place. Not to mention that I don’t have to see a little blinking window in my windows taskbar when I get a message.
Something funny that I noticed while using Meebo is that I now treat all of my contacts the same. You probably don’t know what I’m talking about cause I’m weird sometimes, but different messenger programs give you a different attitude. For instance: Windows Live Messenger was my friend messenger, Gtalk was my work messenger, and Facebook messenger was for only when I was signed in to my Facebook profile. Each of those different environments have obvious attitude implications. Now that all of my contacts are in the same place I care equally about everyone in a way.
I was going to blog about Meebo a few days ago when I first started using it, but I figured I’d give it a couple of days before I went talking about how much I love it because usually when I do that about something new, I end up hating it the next day. But I could tell that Meebo would be useful and functional for my workstyle from day 1. That’s right, I just invented a new word: workstyle.
So there you have it. Try out Meebo. It’s free (no, it really is), I endorse it, John Chow endorses it, and I bet you’ll like it.
Have something useful to say about Meebo? Let me know.
