It looks like Meebo isn’t going to be the only one in the Online instant messenger arena. Kool IM is amazing similar to Meebo when it comes to features, but I like the interface on Kool IM much more. They condense down all of the logins to a single line and do not combine any messenger types, such as Google Talk and Jabber. This gives the homepage a more slick and streamlined look.
Both sites support connecting to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, and Google Talk. One thing that Meebo does better is that it utilizes the current browser window to display your chat sessions instead of popping open a new window. If you connect to multiple networks each time you login then Meebo is probably the nicer route to go. Meebo seems to be a little more advanced technologically but Kool IM is off to a good start.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to be a very worthy competitor. Meebo is much farther ahead than they are in terms of features and development, and I spotted a bug in KoolIM during the first 60 seconds of my use. (For comparision purposes, I don’t recall ever having any problem with Meebo, which is also in alpha.)
I’ve been using Meebo for about 4 months now and haven’t seen a single bug or had a single complaint. Everything works flawlessly and it’s great that everything is in a single window. One of the reasons people (including myself) use Firefox is tabbed browsing and having less windows. Kool IM doesn’t seem to understand that people don’t like more windows popping up all over the place every time I try to IM a different person. Buddy list= 1 popup. 3 IMs= 3 more popups. Meebo= 0 popups. That’s why I won’t be using Kool IM and will stick with Meebo.
Both of you have made some great points. However, I wonder if Kool IM is going to try and catch up to Meebo by creating a one-window interface for all of the chat sessions. If they can do that then I think both sites would be extremely popular.
-Ryan
Well, one more point neither of us mentioned–Meebo’s graphics are much, much better.
Use the Damm Phone!!!!
In response to the above comment:
Uhhh, ok, very insightful…
anyone tried ebuddy?
[ebuddy.com]
I had not heard of that before but after checking it out I wasn’t very impressed. There is no support for Jabber/Google Talk which is my primary messaging client that I use.
-Ryan
Seems like Kool IM has a good shot, if they create an embedded version, they will really put a lot of pressure on meebo.
I have been using meebo from the beginning, i remmeber that they had a lot of issues when they first launched, it has been 10 months in alpha, i am not sure why a lot of sites hold on to the alpha tag so long, even google does that.
I wonder if Kool IM has any intentions of creating an embedded version though. If they don’t then I think Meebo will continue to reign.
-Ryan
Thier message board and blog says that it is in the works, i think if they do so, than meebo is in big trouble.
I like this app!
I do think that Kool IM is better then Meebo.
I use koolim at work, i do loose connection sometimes but other than that, everything else works great.
Embedded version would be nice, i think koolim has been oput 1 month while meebo has been out 11 months.
I think koolim has a long way, we will see what happens, i will use meebo until they come out with something embedded in one browser window.
I love the koolim website. works great!
I agree, meebo is nice, but they are blocked here so i like koolim better!
[communicationtube.net]
very nice app but its so and clunky.
Koolim is getting there…. but still miles away from eBuddy or Meebo.
eBuddy and Meebo, still have the best web messengers, although eBuddy tops my list, due to the super look n feel and reliability . I’ve never had any problems with it so far.