When we are away from home, we might find difficulties to access instant messaging program such as MSN and Yahoo Messenger as not all computers have the software installed. Fortunately for us, there is still away we can access those instant messaging program easily, which is by using several web services that offer that feature besides using an open-source portable software, Gaim.
They are Meebo, KoolIM, and Ebuddy. Each of them have dedicated fans and user group so let’s us check out a sneak preview about them below to see what works best for you. Besides free they will not require us to install any program and register to use the service, sounds interesting isn’t it?
Meebo can be accessed absolutely anywhere as long as you have an internet connection. It is an Ajax-powered site that lets you move the message boxes around while chatting online with your friend using MSN Messenger, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk.
You will have the ability to log into all IM networks simultaneously from your Internet Browser for multi-chatting. Meebo encrypts password with 1024-bit RSA keys and decrypt them server-side using OpenSSL that we can rest assured about the security. Not to say that Meebo is perfect but for the time being, there are no critical flaw reported yet.
Kool IM: This one is a major competitor to Meebo and Ebuddy and expected, it let you use MSN Messenger, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk besides encrypting your password like the other two web services did but with the addition of Jabber IM support.
However, I realized that we are going to chat in a browser pop-up window which is different from Meebo and does not compliant the web standards. It might be troublesome if a user has a pop-up blocker installed and as a result, has to disable it just to use this web service. Although it’s still in Alpha 2.0, this new Web 2.0 startup has all its features working.
Ebuddy’s most useful feature is it allows you to chat with your friends using a mobile phone or PDA unlike Meebo and Ebuddy. The rest of the features are same as Meebo so i don’t think I need to cover about them again. This web service will be essential to students whom their school computer lab blocks access to Meebo and Kool IM. At the same time, they got the alternative to use their mobile phone or PDA instead of using a computer.
. I don’t want this software to be like Windows...
April 27th, 2007 at 10:19 am
The new eBuddy BETA was released yesterday
Its in the blog: http://blog.ebuddy.com/
New Beta:
http://www.ebuddy.com/promo.php
April 27th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Hi, Kylian. I got the e-mail regarding the update from your workmate and thanks for posting the update here.
August 12th, 2007 at 1:02 am
Add this to your list… http://www.iloveim.com
August 24th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Have you tried QIP? I think it is the best messenger. Sorry for offtopic, this is not an a.d., just recommendation
http://qip.ru/
October 31st, 2007 at 3:12 am
other web based msn is MingleWorld wich is a social network with lots of features and one of them is a messenger integrated with MSN Messenger
February 12th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I personally like Meebo best so far after searching for any alternative to meebo, none compared. My only problem with it is that my computer blocks it. Some libraries, school computers, and work computers might have anti-meebo things on it. haha.
And Ebuddy doesn’t really want to let me see my buddy’s away messages… which is frustrating. That’s my complaint about Iloveim.com also.
KoolIM.com is also nice, but it lumps everyone on your buddy list into one catagory, so if you have a lot of buddies, that might be annoying.