StellarTech Blog

I’ve recently decided to really try out meebo, at meebo.com, to see if I can replace trillian. I mainly use instant messaging to talk to clients or potential clients. I’ve used it in the past but not in way it was meant; via a web page. I used trillian to connect to my meebo account and I used their web widget as an easy way for anyone to communicate with me online without having to resort to phone or email.

The main draw back I found with this method is that that every hit to the web page containing the widget will make trillian bark that I need to approve adding a contact to my contact list. This gets really annoying fast. Meebo seems to generate a new UID every time the page is reloaded. There is nothing wrong with this as that is what makes the whole thing so flexable. The problem is really, imo, a lack of functionality in trillian’s jabber plugin. I could switch to PSI as it has an option to auto approve but I loath it’s interface. I have seen a modified jabber.dll file for gaim here that will handle request from @meebo.org automatically  and this is probably the way I will go after I finish my meebo via web trial if the applications just doesn’t cut it.

It’s my first day using only meebo via the Web. I do have complaints but they really aren’t meant to speak badly of the software itself, just it’s maturity. Features I miss already are the ability to receive offline messages and to be able to broadcast mass messages. I also noticed that meebo doesn’t save your customized away messages so I put “available by cell 123-456-7890″ I’ll actually have to memorize my cell phone number. Another minor annoyance is the lack of configurations with the client compared to other messenger clients.  I’m unfortunately neurotic about simple things like how my contacts are arranged. Meebo has a strange interpretation of my contact list that slowly pecks away at my psyche.

Again I do hate to be negative as I really hope and believe web applications will take off. Web 2.0 is gnu-screen and ssh for the masses. I’m enthusiastic about meebo and similar application and look forward to someday seeing them catch up to desktop application. The software itself is awesome feat and I highly rate it from what I’ve seen so far it just lacks maturity compared to current desktop messengers. Honestly though, comparing the two right now is just not fair.