Meebo

People at work and the university are often barred from using certain software-for-leisure to ensure productivity. Firewalls and proxies are reconfigured to block certain protocols, administrative privileges preventing new installations are imposed, and so on. But since you can’t block out the net, being a very valuable resource, and since so many people have found the value of running things from the web rather from the desktop to treat the web like a desktop, ultimately working around the existing restrictions is now a characteristic and a result of these weirdly-named ones.

Meebo, which does not stand for Mouse Exonic Evidence Based Oligonucleotide, but whose makers were aware that such an acronym existed yet went off to name it like that anyway, apply the loophole to Instant Messaging, and you get a web-based alternative to everyone’s favorite pastime. That is if you’re on the Yahoo!, AOL, Jabber/GTalk, or MSN networks.

Bosses may want to cringe with the arrival of Meebo and its relatives, but J. Tang and J. Begole of Sun Labs believe it’s a matter of usage. IMing has a lot of potential when it becomes mature enough to be a provider of “awareness services” which it, in the end, possibly one of the necessary tools for work after all.

The Qwerks

Belongs to Circle Number
4, The Cab Calloway

The Formula
Doublized, Gibberish, Qwerky-O’s

Web 2.0 Validator Score
1/43

Sells T-shirts
Yup, and other stuff

Separated at Birth From
IMunitive

A Future Competitor
Once they find a fitting developer

3 thoughts on “Meebo

  1. I’ve always cringed at the idea of companies banning IM networks. Don’t they know that IM is the new email?

    I’ve had a lot of business transactions discussed and even closed thru IM.

    It’s great that you mention the “awareness” factor–this is an edge IM has over email.

  2. unfortunately some workplaces ban even meebo. the cs people who have their ojt at **** have learned from the batches that preceded them how to get around those blocked sites. too bad i haven’t found a qwerky-named proxy jumper yet. :P

    but is this worse than not being able to use one’s cellphone at work (it’s checked in before you go to work at *****)? very narrow-minded thinking.

Comments are closed.