Live from the Meebodrome, it’s a new week and a new release – Release 64!
Last week’s release generated a lot of buzz from you, our users (in our forums, via email, and on our blog). We did a bunch of things right, but missed some things as well. A lot of the feedback went something like this:
Well, we listened, and we’re back this week with good news – preset away messages are back for Meebo network accounts. Sorry for their brief hiatus 
(Not on the Meebo network yet? Create a New Meebo Account!)
The conversation starters that now show up in the IM window have been popular as well. You guys seem to like to share animal facts and body facts the most. Tens of thousands of people told their friends that giraffes can clean their ears with their tongues, the average elephant weighs less than a blue whale’s tongue, and that your mouth produces 1L of saliva a day. Stay tuned for new facts in the IM window in the coming weeks.
-a
[ comments ] [ past blogs ]
March 6th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
2 things..
a. this really worked better the way it was originally laid out.. why change a good thing?
b. theres a bug when using the black back ground and on IE7. I go to add a message (out to lunch is one I always like to have as custom). and it doesnt add.
steps to recreate.
1. have the black background selected with no pics
2. click the “edit messages” from the message selection area
3. When the “Away message” box comes up click add
4. type in new message. (there is no save buton.. so … i guess you can either press the add button again or just push outside the ‘box’ you were editing.. ‘
5. notice no message is added to you “away messages”.
6. sigh… no soup for you …
March 6th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Thanks, Savednoteguy. Try hitting “Enter” after you type the away message — we’ll try & make that clearer, too, in future releases.
March 6th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
I liked the customizable online messages as well, why’d those have to go too?
I do like the buddy icon selector though.
March 6th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
idiot dont you what to write
think before you write
take this as advice but not as wat u think
March 6th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
UN BESO EN TU ALMA
March 7th, 2009 at 1:52 am
Keep wiriting guys
March 7th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Nice to have custom statuses back!
March 7th, 2009 at 4:37 am
i am bored of meebo update it !!!!!
March 7th, 2009 at 5:51 am
1. Need to fix tab order. Sometimes I hit tab and enter too quickly and it takes me to Firefox Fast Dial.
2. You need to add an easy way to switch between IM windows when they are maximised to take the whole browser screen.
3. We definitely need more fun facts
Keep up the good work.
- Basar
March 7th, 2009 at 6:14 am
what am u doin on that picture
March 7th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Sorry, I hate the fact thing, spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to get rid of it. Please tell me there’s a way!?
March 7th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Now you just have to remove the “- via meebo.com” from the online message, or at least make it optional.
March 7th, 2009 at 9:58 am
1. you guys need to make that blog window optional.
2. i have like 10 im windows open all the time and can’t change my away message so easily anymore. now i have to move all my windows out of the way. don’t you guys think about these things?
3. what is up with the fact things in my window? what a waste of space.
4. another of my pet peeve is the ad keeps popping up! argh! do you get paid for making my life harder? is it time for me to leave meebo?
5. and sticking via meebo.com in my status??? i wouldn’t mind if you weren’t adding adding random stuff to my im window and making ads pop up all the time.
sorry – i loved meebo – but enough is enough
March 7th, 2009 at 11:09 am
OK, good thing u brought preset messages back, but…
when you click to set ur status, GET RID OF SHOWING: Available – via meebo.com
If i try to click select all of it to delete it and set mine, it just accidently sets it as available – via meebo.com! I ahve to bring my cursor back and slowly delete all of it. When i click the set status are, MAKE IT BLANK SO I CAN SET MY STATUS EASILY, I AM SICK OF COMMERCIALS FROM MEEBO, im not letting you guys set a commercial in my status, MAKE IT BLANK when i click that section, its so stupid!
EVERYONE HATES VIA MEEBO.COM! GET RID OF IT! PERIOD!
March 7th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
hey and thanks for the latest progress in bringing back the preset messages.
however i want to enquire on the sign off and reconnect thing. i think it is confusing on the left side. also because, after having signed off, it still says reconnect in the contact list. why not add the sign off button to the place where it was before?
just a suggestion.
March 7th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
heyy its vv nice. i recently came to know abt that…. yupss changs made r gud.. nice job…..
March 7th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
the: Available – via meebo.com is so friggin obnoxious ok? no one wants to friggin avertise for you!! somehow i ithnk adding that will make you loose more people then gaining people. i mean if you use aim theres always aim express
but thats for giving us back the present away messages. and i agree with mark on #2:
“i have like 10 im windows open all the time and can’t change my away message so easily anymore. now i have to move all my windows out of the way. don’t you guys think about these things?”
March 7th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
EDIT: sorry i meant “thanks for giving us back the present away messages”
March 7th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
in china they have QQ which is kind of like aim in the United states. I was wondering if there was anyway to connect QQ to my meebo account
March 7th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Esse ai é meu amigo de fitebol Emerson mais esse mlk tá famoso hein rsrs abraços mano.
March 7th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
talk to me there meet me if you want to talk susannawilliams@ymail.com
March 7th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
this thing is sooooooooooooooooooo stupid
March 7th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
can vou fix the group chat bug please??????
March 8th, 2009 at 1:11 am
I love meebo. It gets me through the boring hours at school. I do however think some things could be fixed. Sticking via meebo.com on my status not very good. At first i wasn’t so sure with the preset messages, but good job with those. Also if you could not have the meebo blog pop up everytime i log on. It starts to get kinda frustrating after awhile. The fun facts are great. Please Find MORE!!
March 8th, 2009 at 2:18 am
I don’t mind having “via meebo.com” on my status… The more people use meebo, the better. And those of you who complained about advertisements, well guess what, meebo is a business and they need to make their investors happy. If you don’t like the ads, you can always leave and use MSN messenger. Nobody put a gun on your head.
March 8th, 2009 at 2:25 am
can you PLEASE put the status back on the buddy list. I hate it on the left side.
March 8th, 2009 at 4:56 am
There are several things in don’t liek of Meebo.
The available message “via meebo.com” is annoying, and having to change it everytime i log in… grrr Why don’t add the edit available messages too?.
The Ads are ok, i simply minimize it, and it’s ok, what i don’t like is those trap links, when u rollover over the ad, or near the x, the add open automatically, and i never wanted to open it… that’s called spam!.
The meebo rooms are very limited, we need some major improvementes there.
- We need a flag to allow chatroom owners to define the kind of room it is, there are a lot of adult rooms which can’t restrcit the access of underage people. Why don’t use an Open, Mild, and Adult flags?.
- We need a general disclaimer screen when u open room, for asking everyone who enter if they are adult on their state or country, and advising than there is possible explicit chat and images on room.
- We need a kick option in room, right noiw the only way to kick someone is ban them.
The room owners need an option to allow only registered members to the room, as bots are on the rise.
The member status should be supervised by the owner of the room and have several advantages, example, avoiding the disclaimer screen on start.
Btw would be great to have a f.ck.g ignore option in IM, as sometimes are very stupid people around.
March 8th, 2009 at 6:58 am
wow u really dont have a life maby u should u should go on E Hormoney get urself a gf lol u suck
March 8th, 2009 at 8:18 am
i like
March 8th, 2009 at 9:20 am
The only thing I’ve always wanted from Meebo is the ability to set separate away message for each of the accounts I’m logged into. I’m usually logged into at least 4 accounts (1 personal AIM I give out to my friends, 1 work AIM I give to coworkers, 1 MSN I give to international people, and 1 Google I give to anyone).
I would like to be able to set, for example, “Going out to the bar, meet me there!” as the away message on my personal account and “Email me at ___ if you need to contact me” on my work account. You could still leave the current system of setting all of them at once intact for times when a generic one will work for every account.
Maybe if there was a “Set away message…” option under the drop down menus for the individual screen names (under Set Display Name, Set Profile, and Sign Off), so each screen name could have its own away message.
What do you think?
March 8th, 2009 at 9:47 am
I was just looking at this, thinking it might be useful, but the more I read of it, the more useless it seemed. It’s a great idea, but I use Mozilla Firefox’s “Meebo” Plug-in, and I fail to see the benefit of the Notifier of the plug-in. If someone could just clarify for me why the notifier is better or anything else useful that I may be missing, please do.
My Meebo account name is “YoBoom21″ Just please tell me why you are messaging me if you do.
March 8th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Awesome! The only things I ask for now are
1) Nudges for MSN
2) Improved functionality of the Firefox extension
March 8th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
umm i didn’t think there was a lot that you told me i was actuallyyyyy really bored but whatever if you thought it was good well you think wrong(:
ok welll bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
March 8th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
umm i didn’t think there was a lot that you told me i was actuallyyyyy really bored but whatever if you thought it was good well you think wrong(:
ok welll bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
March 8th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
HEYYY! u didnt tell me muchhh i was bored…….yea it was bad………
March 8th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
You say: “The conversation starters have been popular as well”. So does that mean you’re not going to give us the option to disable them, as many of us have asked for?
March 8th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
i dont friken care you tard
March 8th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
well Neplese people are doing great
March 9th, 2009 at 12:45 am
yes this is a very instresting story u should read it xxxxxxxxxxxxx see ya
March 9th, 2009 at 12:57 am
huh!
“u miss ur present away message”then why do u write in present write in past………..haha jst kidding dont mind.
March 9th, 2009 at 12:59 am
huh!
“u miss ur present away message”then why do u write in present write in past………..haha jst kidding dont min
March 9th, 2009 at 3:59 am
ya know what’s peeving me right now? no block option for meebo accounts. there’s no way to get someone who’s harassing me in a meebo chatroom to just go away.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:47 am
I REALLY liked the way the away message/status bar was in the buddylist before. Now I have to minimize all my IMs EVERY time I want to change my status (which is usually numerous times in a business day). In addition, you brought back preset Away Messages, but you took away the functionality to just click ‘Away’ and change the status in the status bar. I very rarely use the presets, because I often just type something and click ‘away’ or ‘available’ as necessary. Please please please bring this back. If you dont…? I might just have to switch to GoogleTalk for all my chatting needs. Hate to play the “I’m Leaving” card, but you’ve made significant changes in the past that I havent been crazy about (I used to find myself typing my status in the ‘find buddy’ bar, which i despise) but I’ve stayed loyal. This most recent change? I dont know if I can deal with the frustration.
xoxo
d.col
March 9th, 2009 at 5:57 am
March 9th, 2009 at 5:57 am
March 9th, 2009 at 6:18 am
i like the fun facts, they add that little bit of boredom-killer when you want a quick distraction! however i must agree with some of the people who dont like ‘via meebo.com’ – i understand you guys want the promotion but dont make yourselves as annoying as ebuddy with those msgs, youre really not making yourselves anymore popular with existing meebo users and wer’e the ones who can recommend you! I do also agree with someone elses comment, nudges for msn would be a nice touch.
BUT, that being said, to all those people who have left especially obnoxious comments, just stop there is no need for you to be so aggressive, ok the pop-up ads are a litt;le annoying but can be avoiding by a little more care on part of your cursor use, and as for the blog, it does no harm and is easily closed, i find it funny youre too idle to do that yet have time and energy to leave comments ranting about it
keep up the good work meebo!
March 9th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Would anybody else like to have their buddy session windows remember (size, position, etc.). For me, I like them laid out a certain way; it’d be great if Meebo would remember the layout.
March 9th, 2009 at 6:58 am
well i do like the facts that the meebo gives out and i like it alot…makes my I.q. go higher.. and i tell my friends those stuff about the facts meebo gives out… preety cool site to get facts about stuff in the world pce out homiesssssssss….later to all poeple
March 9th, 2009 at 7:10 am
ever since you guys updated meebo, i can’t use it anymore. it’s really disappointing becuz i use it at work and have yet to find any other program that compared to what meebo used to be. now when i sign on, it constantly FREEZES and then tells me every two seconds i’ve had a network interruption. and becuz i keep getting the network problem, i pretty much am having conversations with myself online becuz the people i am messaging don’t receive everything i send. BRING BACK THE OLD MEEBO!
March 9th, 2009 at 7:34 am
Hello! My name’s Csenge, and I live in Budapest (in Hungary ) I look after to friends.
My meebo adress: fcsenge@hotmail.com and my e-mail: fcsenge@gmail.com I love the people, and the Earth!!!! 
You write me please!
March 9th, 2009 at 7:59 am
hi wot u p to i am bored
March 9th, 2009 at 8:00 am
i am so bored i need somone to talk to
March 9th, 2009 at 8:03 am
is any one there can u answer
March 9th, 2009 at 8:30 am
I love you!
March 9th, 2009 at 8:36 am
are you fakc crezy
March 9th, 2009 at 8:36 am
esti proasta?
March 9th, 2009 at 9:25 am
you guys can tell when I use a conversation starter? what else can you tell I send?
March 9th, 2009 at 10:32 am
PLEASE, Please, please put the sign on/off button and status messages bar thing IN the BUDDY LIST again, PLEASE!!!!
PLEASE!!!!!
March 9th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
you sould add clubpnguin
March 9th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
hola mi amor como estas mi corason.ok y llo teamo.ok yl lo tequiero.ok y llo
March 9th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
hola mi amor como estas mi corason.ok y llo teamo.ok yl lo tequiero.ok
fin.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ook.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok.ok
March 9th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
thanks
March 9th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
hello.I’m 14 years old.How old are youu?And what’s your name?
Where are you from?Hehe Loveee Youuuuuuuuu kissss!!!!
March 9th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
helo.my name is lirime………..lulush……..and im 15 years old.and im albenans girl…and you…………..?
March 10th, 2009 at 1:12 am
I hope MEEBO san develop some other access into it for those companies whose IT blocked meebo on a firewall.
March 10th, 2009 at 3:25 am
Hello
The updates are fine, except everytime you do them it unblocks everyone that I have blocked. I like to choose who I speak to and unblock them accordingly – the updates always unblock everyone on my list.
Yes, I know I sound mean about blocking everyone :$
March 10th, 2009 at 5:15 am
hello
my name is husne I’m from turkey
March 10th, 2009 at 5:32 am
I logged out after having blocked quite a few people again and then logged back in and … they are all unblocked again … noooooooooooo
March 10th, 2009 at 6:48 am
Hey, Meebo Crew.
Things still aren’t working like they were before the Big Change. Yeah, I have pre-set messages, but there’s still a few things wrong with them.
A) By moving them out of the buddy list and into the environment with all the IM windows (not sure what you call it, the workspace?), it means I have to move/minimize my IM windows to get to the place to change my status. This prevents a quick status change and is annoying and unnecessary. As I commented during the big dust up, I use this at work and want the ability to change my status quickly, with a click to let people know I’m off to a meeting, working at my desk, or someone is in my office. The way you have it now, changing status is not convenient.
B) I don’t know about anyone else, but unless you’re a meebo user, no one is seeing my custom away messages. They just see “Available” or “Away” and don’t see “working at my desk” or “off to a meeting”. All my buddies on MSN see is little music notes, but nothing to indicate that there’s additional info in the status. Now, for the 2 friends I have that use meebo, I see theirs just fine, and they see mine, but my non-meebo friends don’t. Not sure what’s going on, but ever since the “what are you doing now” box has shown up, noone knows what I’m doing now.
I see this as a definite bug and something that’s only come about with the Big Change from last week. Something here is broke, not just an errant feature change.
C) You’ve also changed the functionality such that I can’t have status messages for Available. I used to have custom messages for both available and away, so that people would know a) if I’m around and b) if I’m busy or not. There are times I’m at my desk but busy, and I want people to know that. Busy is not the same as Away. There are a few of my friends who know they can bug me even if I’m Here But Busy. By setting the custom status to Away automatically, they don’t know if I’m here or not. Especially since they can’t see the custom status (see B above).
Ever since the change last week I’ve been trying to figure out what you were trying to accomplish. Seems to me the sign on/off and the change status in the buddy list was working just fine – it was accessible, functional, intuitive and pretty streamlined. The Big Change last week (and some of which still exists with this latest release) has made doing some very basic things less accessible, less functional (at least my non-meebo friends don’t see what they used to see), and certainly less intuitive as we now need to look away from the business end of the tool (the buddy list) to do some pretty basic things.
I’ll reiterate something I said last week. I use meebo as a web-based, all-in-one IM replacement from work. That’s all I need it to do, and I suspect that’s what a lot of people need it to do (especially so many that agreed with my comments last week). I don’t mind advances and development, but I think you should start with that one fundamental starting point and work from there. Don’t take functionality away for the sake of some other goal (social networking? twittering? facebooking?). Don’t lose sight of your core, and when developing new features ask – is it accessible, functional and intuitive for our core users?
Keep up the good effort and the good work, gang. I’ll be sticking around because I need a web option when I’m at work and I’d rather see meebo continue to improve than to find some other work around IM option. Good luck!
March 10th, 2009 at 7:12 am
–I don’t like how Offline contacts are automatically expanded every time I login now. That’s very irritating!
–I also agree with wanting the preset away messages. Let’s keep those. Thx.
–I’m not sure I care for the change in the Sign Off button…, that’s kind of strange now. I think I prefer it on the Buddy List window, but I can reason for why it was moved to where it is.
Continue the great work! I love Meebo!
March 10th, 2009 at 7:36 am
hola k wapo eres eee
ey bas a tener k aprender el español ee e
jjee shikitito bueno besoss bye
????
March 10th, 2009 at 11:21 am
wow!! ppl like to complain lol
am just happy i can logg on at school
cuz its da only website not blocked
March 10th, 2009 at 11:35 am
wtf? how does meebo know that people told others about the facts? are they monitoring our IMs?
March 10th, 2009 at 11:48 am
um beijo da gorda uou :*
March 10th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
i see where janissh is coming from;; how exactly do yu guys know we told ‘friends’ about those random facts?
but off of that subject;; i really like how meebo lets yu have an image as your buddy icon but several of my friends have told me they can’t see it;; i would love for them to see my buddy icon as i can see theirs;; an also i like tha fact how “aim” lets yu see who has been idle for what period of time;; that would be a nice addition to meebo.
March 10th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Now move the status messages back to above our buddy lists, remove the stupid conversation starters (how exactly do you know which ones people use anyway?) and quit making meebo users advertisers (the via meebo.com), and I’ll be happy.
March 10th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I have custom Away messages and can’t tell which is which now since you don’t show the entire message (or tooltip, or scroll it) in the dropdown box. Can you add a tooltip or detect if any of the messages are long and make the dropdown box wider in that case?
March 10th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I really love the facts thing. They’re funny and I always share them with my friends. There should be more of those.
March 10th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
i think its pretty cool acctually
March 10th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
totally. my friends and i crack up over them all the time
March 10th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Skype support? coming soon OR no intention to?
March 10th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
remove via meebo.com. and the drop down list for custom messages should be moved to where you can type ur status, so u can change from available to away and back without changing ur status. JUST MAKE EVERYTHING LIKE REGULAR AIM! OK! IM HERE ONLY since AIm express sucks and u guys are willing to make it better. SO MAKE IT BETTER!
March 10th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
hey i just noticed that it no longer allows us to send msgs to people on the phone. Is that a new change? I was wondering if we could maybe change it back to be able to talk to people who are on the phone as well… thanks
March 10th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
hey u r awesome……..i love blogging so maybe i’ll see u around…….just so u no i am a B-E-A-U-TIL-FUL blonde
March 10th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Nice piece of work! I tried meebo a year or two ago and wasn’t impressed. I rediscovered it last week and i don’t know if you changed or if i did — but really — this is GOOD and i’ve recommended it. I love that it supports multiple protocols simutaneously!
Suggestion — i’d like it to open the way i closed it. In my case, i keep having to hide offline users; it would be nice if i could set the preference to show or hide and have it stay there when i re-open meebo.
Kudos!
March 10th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
A bunch of my mobile buddies have disappeared whats happened?
March 10th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
hey i m new here so i dont now what i am doin so help!!!
March 10th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
need picturess!!
March 11th, 2009 at 4:13 am
Today’s polls, specifically the sports poll.
How could you not put ice hockey on the list?!?!?
You have a great team in the bay area
March 11th, 2009 at 6:13 am
OMG! I just have to tell you I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE THE NEW FACEBOOK CHAT FEATURE!!! It works way better than the REAL facebook chat!
I LOVE Meebo so much! I tell all my friends to sign up for it and harass them til they do! Im only trying to help them! Theyre doing themselves a disservice if they dont!
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GUYS!!! YOU ARE AWWWWWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 11th, 2009 at 6:13 am
The fun facts are obnoxious. Give us a way to turn them off.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:24 am
I have recently started using meebo for chatting (Yahoo Messsenger and GoogleTalk)
There is a bug in using it which is :
after i re-logging i am not getting a prompt for entering the user name and password
March 11th, 2009 at 6:36 am
On your conversation starters I am wondering about the one that says no words rythme with purple, orange and silver but I think circle and turtle rhyme with purple, and garbage rhymes with orange and clover and over rhyme with silver.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:02 am
I love Meebo – thanks for the great service. I have an idea for an improvement, though… it would be really really helpful if the contact list could be done in multiple columns that fit the height of the screen (as opposed to one long column). I have lots of contacts in different groups. Being able to see everyone without having to scroll up and down would be very helpful.
Thanks for the consideration!
March 18th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Cheers..
March 21st, 2009 at 5:05 am
I NEED YOUR IDEA THAT YOU HAVE ABOUT LOVE
March 21st, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Setting your status is a major problem because it only shows a segment of your status followed by (…).
EXAMPLE: AWAY IM NOT HERE RIGHT NOW BE BACK LATER BYE IM ers
changes to
AWAY IM NOT HERE RIGHT NOW BE BAC…..
March 28th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
perde
March 31st, 2009 at 2:52 am
olá seja pra quem for não falo a lingua de voceis mas deixo um abraço!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 31st, 2009 at 5:20 am
I want to appreciate the creators of Meebo for this alternative IM device. It’s a great work.
I quickly want to suggest that adding an AUDIOVISUAL COMPONENT to meebo will improve it: this will make it possible to see instant pictures; it can also calls between friends.
Look into this,
Thanks.
May 29th, 2009 at 3:27 am
be shocked…
September 9th, 2009 at 3:32 am
Cheers..
November 4th, 2009 at 7:55 am
I REALLY liked the way the away message/status bar was in the buddylist before. Now I have to minimize all my IMs EVERY time I want to change my status (which is usually numerous times in a business day).