Meetro v. Meebo v. 800 lb. Gorillas
Last night at the Super Happy Dev House, I had the opportunity to talk to Paul Bragiel of Meetro and to Seth of Meebo. Pretty good products with diffentiation from the big gorillas - AOL, MSN, and Y!
In case you don't know, Meetro is a location finder that allows you to meet the people in a geographical area. It allows to look for like-minded people, friends of friends, or interesting places. It sits on a downloadable client like most instant messengers.
On the other hand, Meebo is a AJAX instant messenger (yes, it runs on a browser) that connects to the big networks. Pretty cool if you can't download software (e.g. office), sharing computers, or using someone else's PC. Its a cool product eventhough it still misses the big features such as voice, music, etc. I still have to get used to having IM on a browser though.
The challenge for these two companies is the legality of connecting to the networks. You can get away with it (like Trillian) if you're a small company. But once you grow, it'll be more difficult. Plus, the big use for IM is moving to video and voice. And thats not easy to do.
posted by David @ 1:43 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I seems like you enjoyed yourself at shdh. Excellent!
I am not in the know regarding either of these areas, but I am always willing to give my opinion ;-)
Meetro:
how does one define "like minds"? Location can be awkward.
In the IM space, if it is not cross-platform, (and open source) it won't fly. Quite a few of my buddies are a lot more excited by where jabber is heading with geo, with possibly a little bit of plazes thrown into the mix.
Meebo:
there seems to be room for a web based IM client, but it has been tried (this Java). I am glad that the meebo developers awknowledge that they a ways to before being a compelling alternative. I don't think an IM client will be enough though in the consumer space, but possible they have identified other markets.
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