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February 19, 2007
Plugoo: MeeboMe Widget's new competition
The always impressive Phil Bradley introduced me today to Plugoo, a beta project that lets users chat with you through a window on your webpage while you're using the instant messenger client of your choice. Plugoo supports Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, GoogleTalk, Jabber, and ICQ. It's comprable to the MeeboMe widget that wowed the library world not so long ago.
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Set up an account with Plugoo and add Plugoo to your contacts list in IM. Then add Plugoo to your website. When a user comes to your site, (s)he can see that you're logged in (or busy or offline, so says Plugoo anyway). The user enters a nickname, an initial chat message, and starts chatting. Users can use the enter key or the little arrow button to send new messages. You can also customize it--changing the color and size of the window to match the look and style of your site. Fortunately, Phil had already set up Plugoo on his blog, so I got to see it in action and take these screen shots. |
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Unfortunately, you can only chat with one person at a time. When I opened a second chat window with Phil, this is what I saw: ("conversation closed" then my original message). I don't know if that's because Plugoo somehow recognized that I, on my computer, was already chatting with Phil, or if that's what all users see. If the latter is the case, that could be user-friendlier. |
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And this is what I saw when Phil went offline, which is fine, I think. There are more FAQs about Plugoo on their website. Plugoo over MeeboMe You can use whatever IM client you're already using to take advantage of Pluggo (with the MeeboMe widget you have to use Meebo). MeeboMe over Plugoo MeeboMe lets you chat with multiple users at a time. MeeboMe's privacy policy and terms of service are very clear and on the up and up. You have to e-mail Plugoo to get their privacy policy (contact [at] plugoo.com), and their TOS are theoretically available via a link during the registration process, but I couldn't get the link to work in Firefox or IE. Additionally (and this is a biggie) MeeboMe handles multiple screen names in multiple IM clients, while Plugoo only handles one screen name in one client. |
I think I'm still a MeeboMe girl, but for libraries who only want to use one screen name, Plugoo may be a serious contender. What do you think?
February 19, 2007 | Permalink
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Comments
An up and coming tool to integrate instant messaging (still in beta) is called Hab.la (http://www.hab.la) However, unlike Plugoo, you can have multiple concurrent users on the site, as well as be informed as to the location of the user on your site, so you can better assist them.
Posted by: Roland | June 4, 2007
Hi,
This is Anne-Laure, I work for Wambo, a startup located in the Silicon Valley. We've just developed a new type of messenger which has a feature similar to MeeboMe or Plugoo. Unlike the latter, the Wambo chatbox is a light "contact me" button on a webpage (when visitors click on it, a chat window pops up and the conversation can start). Messages are received and archived in "Wambo messenger" (easy to install, no registration and free). We haven't launched our product yet, but we would like people like you to help us improve it :) I hope this description gives you an idea of what it is! If you could contact me to give me your feedback I would realy appreciate it. Here's my email address: anne-laure@wambo.com Thank you in advance for your help. www.wambo.com
Posted by: Anne-Laure | March 2, 2007
Our library started using Plugoo in January. http://library.law.wisc.edu/
We like that we can have a chat box on our home page which we can access through our existing IM accounts (monitored via Trillian). Our users don't need to have an IM account - or even know what IM is.
Posted by: Bonnie Shucha | February20, 2007
Meebome can actually connect with any Jabber-capable IM client. When I use it with AdiumX (MacOS X) it for some reason asks for permission to "add to addressbook" everytime someone load my blog. Don't know if that depends on Meebome or an Adium setting though.
Posted by: Jonaz | February20, 2007
I think your assessment is dead-on. I set up Plugoo a couple of weeks ago on my blog to test it out. I was disappointed when I discovered the limitation to chatting with only one user at a time. I have also noticed that it sometimes shows me as unavailable when I am logged in and available. I don't think it is a viable option for libraries receiving a lot of im questions. My ideal would be for Meebo to modify their widget so that it can be used without being logged into their site.
Posted by: Andrew | February19, 2007
