Hey guys how are you doing, you know I been learning a lot lately and reading up, and if you noticed in the world of computer science, AJAX(Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) a technology pioneered by Google(Mail) is currently the most popular way to develop webpages and applications. In short, these are applications/webpages that can be refreshed without refreshing the web browser, that is they can accept HTTP requests(XML) instantaneously.
What I am going with this? well the future is this, a web application called Meebo, you can log into your ICQ, Yahoo, Hotmail(messenger) or Aim account and chat online!. Its great and its so fast. Don't worry about your passwords, they are encrypted in 1024-bit RSA keys so hackers won't catch them up.
Try it out, and enjoy the future, AJAX driven technologies that will innovate the market for the next years.

Oh I forgot to give the link to the site its this one:
http://www2.meebo.com/
Enjoy!

It's still too early for me to chuck away my favourite IM, Miranda but Meebo definitely makes one sit up and marvel and what can be achieved strictly thru server-side processing. Of course, the Meebo interface leaves a lot to be desired.

A lot of bugs that need to be worked out, but thankfully the development team are always ready to listen. This is something that is noticeably missing from the big guns like Yahoo and MSN ( I've had mixed results with the dev teams @ Google ). I've noticed that it seems to work better when you have a dedicated IP address rather than when accessing the Internet via a Network LAN. It tends to drop packets and at one point of time was showing the status of my contacts incorrectly.

The plus points - you can log in to your IM service form anywhere and you don't need to download anything! Also, because the services are now storing your contact list online, one really doesn't need to re-enter the contacts each time.

Talking from the programming point-of-view, it definitely is an advancement in methodology and techniques. darkranger: Do you know if the new YahooMail interface will be based on similar concept of dynamic elements?

That's a pretty nice find. I've read a bit about AJAX ... seems that it makes the 'Refresh' and 'Back' buttons obsolete. I'm not so sure if I really want to have that. Gmail is pretty neat, but I still find myself pressing the 'Back' button from after reading a particular email.... that's because, in Yahoo and Hotmail, pressing 'Back' takes you to inbox faster than clicking on 'Inbox'. Of course, that's only on my uber-slow connection , but it still is a point to consider.

Wow, Meebo sounds very interesting and advanced. While the new technology sounds convenient and useful, I'll stiill have to consider if the Meebo IM client can connect to closed networks like MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. Because most of my contact use MSN Messenger, it's no use of me using Meebo when I can't IM my MSN contacts. But I would love to try out Meebo though. Any advice?

jcguy: perhaps you ought to take a look at the original post - it's quite clear that you're able to use Meebo to connect to MSN / ICQ / Yahoo / GoogleTalk and that too all at once! Meebo is web-based user interface, not a proprietary protocol.

That's great it means I can talk while im on school computers! It looks pretty smart too. I hate having to use e-messenger ACtually it is amazing, you can just hover over a contact and view their profile! It is actually going to be the future Also customizable statuses. Only slight problem is now and then it says no contacts online but then flicks back with 15 contacts online.