Not too long ago, I received a rather depressing email: Meebo Messenger is being retired. They’ve apparently been acquired by Google, and their product line is being shut down as the Meebo team begins work with the Google + team.
Aw, Meebo – you’ll be missed.
If you’re not familiar, Meebo Messenger (formerly just Meebo) is/was a fantastic instant message client that allowed users to log into Facebook chat, AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and just about any other IM service you can think of. Plus, it kept thorough and searchable chat logs, allowed for file/image transfers, had some video-chat functionality, and generally looked pretty awesome.
And you didn’t have to download a single thing.
That’s right, it was browser based – and it was awesome. Need to log into AIM quick, but you’re at work? No problem – log into Meebo. No downloads, no crappy AIM Express interface, no problem. You could pop the friends list out, pop conversations out, add aliases for your contacts, and so many other awesome things AND NOW THEY’VE SHUT IT DOWN*, BOOOOOO.
Okay, to be fair, I haven’t used Meebo Messenger in quite a while. If I need to IM someone, I generally do it on Facebook or within Gmail. Or, in all reality, I’d probably just send a text.
But Meebo was gorgeous, flexible, handy, and a great idea – and it’s definitely sad to see it go away.
