I just added another feature to the site which I hope to benefit from. If you scroll down to the bottom of the right sidebar, you will notice a white widget called ‘Meebo Me’. This widget, created by the wonderfully brilliant folks at Meebo, just launched their Meebo Me applet this morning and the moment I saw it, I knew I wanted it for the site.

The way it works is really simple. Meebo is a Web 2.0 style, web-based, multi-client, IM system. It allows a user to log into their AOL, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and Jabber/Google Talk systems and chat with their buddies within their browser window. You can log in once (and quickly) through the main page or you can create a Meebo ID and set up all your IM accounts for easy sign-in later on; the Meebo ID also allows you to configure multiple IM names for a particular service – say, you’re two AOL names (you know, the one you have for work, i.e. your name, and your personal one, FuZzyBunnYsLiperS). It can retain your conversations if you ask it to and you can use that feature while chatting one on one with someone or in a chat room you set up with the site. It doesn’t support everything IM has to offer yet (like file transfers) but not everyone uses that anyway.

So with a Meebo ID, anyone can go to their site and create a widget. When you are done creating one (and you can make more than one), it gives you the code to cut and paste into your website, blog, whatever. Once you do that… you’re done! Log into Meebo and wait for someone to visit your site. When someone does, you’ll notice a buddy show up online in your contact list. If the user types into the bottom text box of the applet, you’ll hear a chime alerting you to the new message. And through that new window, you can chat back. The visitor, by default, gets a weird name and number but they are allowed to rename their own given ID; meebome12345 can become SiteVisitor or FuZzyBunnYsLiperS – whatever your heart desires.

In case I forgot to mention, it requires Flash. The applet doesn’t work with crappy Flash 7 for Linux (when is version 9 coming out, Adobe?) so you might have a problem if you are an Ubuntu user like me. But if you have a Mac or some other boring miscellaneous non-descript computing device, you should be fine.

But I hope that you visitors will use it. I’d like to hear where you are from, what your interests are, your pet peeves, your measurements – oh, wait… Sorry, wrong publication. Anyway… I want to learn more about other people and would love the opportunity to chat with those who find my reviews, ramblings, and rants interesting.

Hope to chat with you soon!