Meebo, the ultimate instant messanger site.

During my Lunch time web surfing I came across a great web site for all of the IM junkies out there such as myself, it is called Meebo.com.

When you first browse to the page it looks like a familiar web based IM client for all of the major IM protocols. Though it is far more than that and it is when you get a Meebo. com account that I found the real power of the site.

Once you have logged in the Meebo.com site works like Pidgin in a web browser window. Meebo Currently supports 6 different IM protocols (MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk and Jabber) as well as the Meebo IM protocol. You can set up multiple accounts I currently have my Yahoo and Google Talk accounts set up and setting them up is super simple. You can also setup your accounts to login when you sign into Meebo which is really handy.

I have found Meebo a great way to use IM the same way as I would using my preferred 'Thick' IM client installed on my Laptop in places where there is web access, but the firewall does not allow access to IM. I have even been using Meebo to update my twitter today via my Gmail account which is really handy.

The other thing that is really cool are some of the added services and widgets that Meebo offer. The one I am especially excited about is the Meebo widget for your website blog. What this does is allow you to have IM chat functionality for your website linked back to your Meebo account.

How it works is when someone browses to your site the widget loads and is a Meebo IM client. The client then connects to the Meebo.com servers and then the user is added to your Buddy window in your Meebo account. The usernames are random but there is a place that it can be changed. Allowing you another means of reaching out and building a great relationship with people who come to your site.

Now I know it is a bit of a pain having just your Meebo window open so you can chat with people that come to your site, but pUREdISTORTION has you covered if you are a Pidgin user as after setting up the widget I wanted a way to brig that communication into into Pidgin with my other IM accounts.

What I found was a plugin for the Meebo Widget over at jrponeroy.com/pidgin/, what the widget does is link to your eebo account and when a user browses your website the widget loads and contacts the Meebo.com servers and the user from Meebo Widget is added to Pidgin so that you are able to chat. Then when the user shuts your page the user is removed. The plugin is available for Pidgin version 2.0.0+ and for Linux and Windows. The install instructions are straight foward and on the site, but if requested I can whip up a quick tutorial on the

So check out Meebo.com it is a great piece of next gen cloud computing and if you are a blogger check out the widget as well, also if I am online feel free to have a chat in the Meebo widget which is on the Left hand side of the site.