MeeboMe From a Desktop Client

Jun 13, 2008 by Matt | Posted in Software & Scripts 2 Comments

The MeeboMe widget allows you to easily accept anonymous instant messages from visitors to your website. It’s good for talking with clients and offering live tech support if you run an online business. It’s also a way to add some interactivity to a blog.

But it only works with Meebo though, right? Nope.

With a little work, you can setup your desktop IM client to receive MeeboMe messages. I will assume that you are using a multi-network client like Adium, Pidgin, or Trillian. This should work with any IM client that supports XMPP/Jabber.

  1. Create a MeeboMe widget and put it on your site
  2. Start the process of creating a Jabber (aka XMMP) account.
  3. Enter the username as your_meebo_id@meebo.org, the password as your Meebo password. Put meebo.org as the server.
  4. Find the option that makes your IM client not prompt to allow people to add you to their buddy list (otherwise you’ll get a request for every pageload on your site pretty much…). In Adium it’s “Presence Subscriptions” under the Options tab of the account configuration (set to “Accept”).
  5. Set the port to 5222

That should be it.

  • http://www.hab.la Ben

    Another options is to use, http://Hab.la, Hab.la is a FREE drop in MeeboMe replacement, which also let’s you monitor visitors on your website as they browse your site.  I.e. in MeeboMe visitors only appear on your buddy list when they are chatting with you, but with Hab.la you can see them navigate your site, and then initiate a chat.

    Only disadvantage is that http://www.hab.la is in JavaScript, not Flash, so can’t be used with Myspace, and other sites that restrict Javascript.-Ben

  • http://www.webmaster-source.com Matt

    @Ben Thanks for the tip. Hab.la looks great. Does it have an option to remain hidden until a link is triggered, though? I don’t really care for the way it hovers in the corner in your demos. Other than that, it looks great.