We see traffic from all over the world…India, China, the U.S., South Africa, Israel, Iraq and Siberia. So Elaine, Sandy and I were thinking to ourselves “we need some way to visualize where everyone is!” And hence, the meebo map was born.
Jason, one of our superstar summer interns here at meebo, took on the project. He whipped up an initial version in a couple of days and now you’ll see his meebo map on our blog. The map shows, as best it can, the locations in the world from which users have sent or received IMs through meebo over the past 15 minutes. A few IMs in a spot on the globe make a yellow dot on the map, and the scale goes all the way up to thousands of IMs and the color red. A few interesting things we’ve noticed on the map so far: we have at least one dedicated user in the heart of the Australian Outback. He or she shows up once a day like clockwork. There are even a few spots on the map where tens of thousands of IMs pass every few minutes within a radius of only a couple of miles! Check it out and see if you can find yourself on it!
How did we do this? Statistics are a great way for us to measure our growth and scalability and just as an example of some of the things we track, here’s a snapshot of some recent numbers:
network logins / day: 915,000
meebo logins / day: 655,000
messages sent + received / day: 42,000,000
peak simultaneous users: 43,300
unique users / month: 2,500,000
The statistics we gather are easily scanned by custom scripts that can aggregate and organize the data in really neat ways, like the meebo map. Jason pulls together the IP locations of meebo traffic and pushes that live data to our blog, which updates in real-time (well, every 15 minutes).
There have been a bunch of posts recently in the blogosphere questioning how sites can be externally measured. A couple are here and here. There are four tools I’m aware of. The first two, Hitwise and MediaMetrix are both extremely expensive and really only large companies can afford to use them. The other two tools that any of you can use are Google Trends and Alexa.
All of the tools have their pluses and minuses in terms of their accuracy. Three of the four: Hitwise, MediaMetrix and Alexa require that you download and install software for them to track your web usage, which then gets compiled into aggregate statistics. A whole lot of you aren’t big fans of installing software, or are using computers where you can’t. As a result, MediaMetrix, Hitwise and Alexa are pretty inaccurate tools for figuring out meebo traffic (or traffic to any site that doesn’t require a software download). Many emerging web service sites like meebo suffer from the same problem, which is why we rely heavily on our internal measurements to give us a clearer idea of how things are going.
Google Trends is very different (and very cool). It looks, on a relative basis, at how much people search on a particular keyword. Since Google represents 50% of the worldwide search market, and since this doesn’t require software, it removes a bunch of the biases in software-gathered data. As a result, it’s what we tend to use when figuring out how much traffic startups are likely drawing. It also matches very closely with what other startups have told us their traffic is relative to our own…so we’ve grown pretty comfortable with it. Happy hunting!
Seth
PS - We’re so excited to see Yahoo! conducting usability studies on meebo. Seems like some of you could use $150 – click here. We sure hope Yahoo will be kind enough to share the results with us! 
[ comments ] [ past blogs ] [ digg this! ]
July 18th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
Hey, good work you guys. It would be also interesting to see a statistics of how many people in a particular meebo hotspot uses meebo. I’m sure USA wins hands down in total users, but what about meebo users in terms of users/population?
July 18th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
Oh, sorry. Left out where I am. I’m from Malaysia
July 18th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
Ok,
Have a problem, and hoping you can fix it.
Oh, from Texas.
We cannot log onto meebo from work by going to the site http://www.meebo.com, so guys and gals, how do we get around this little problem so that we do not go into IM withdrawal.
I have fowarded this site to a bunch of folks, it is great as I can consolidate all of my IM’s onto one screen. Keep up the good work and HELP”,
Thanks,
Kim
July 18th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
Im not very good with computers so please don’t laugh at me but i love meebo and its the only way i can safely do my im-ing without my parents going nuts on me for haveing like a hundred viruses on the computer but my question is how do i work on my profile i have one from when i originally set up an aol account but i dont know how to get to it from meebo
please help
Nick Mechling
July 18th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
hi kim,
you can always check out the meebo repeater. the repeater is a small program you run on your home computer or another safe place where meebo is not restricted. when you run it, it will give you a safe IP address number you can use to access meebo from other places. simply enter that number into your browser (the same way you would enter a url) and voila! access to meebo.
you can get the download and check out the details here:
http://blog.meebo.com/?page_id=140
enjoy!
-elaine
July 18th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
your methodology analysis is wrong on how media metrix and how hitwise work. media metrix is a panel based system that extrapolates how much traffic goes to a site based on a sample of internet users who agree to have their usage monitored. hitwise gets data from isps, according to their site, not from downloaded software. alexa is useless. google trends is based only on internet users who go to google.
July 18th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
Good work guys!
July 18th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Intresting to see a few dots around the Isreal, Lebanon region. I guess it could be a good use of communication if Phone Lines / Cell Phones are down.
July 18th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
hey wrong…thanks for the comment! we were fortunate enough to meet with mediametrix a couple weeks ago and to pass on what they told us, each individual member of the \”panel\” is required to download and install software on their respective computers in order for their internet use to be monitored. i\’ll check into hitwise…you may indeed be correct there. we do know that it\’s also rather subject to sampling error…apparently they show meebo\’s average user as being in the 30s which is older by about a decade
. thanks for the points! seth
July 19th, 2006 at 1:48 am
Great job guys! I’m from India, one of my friend introduced me to this site. Its good to have all the IM’s together.
July 19th, 2006 at 3:58 am
Hi,
I *love* the map! Would it be possiblte to animate it over the last 24h? Should be quite interesting to see how day/night influences the IM usage over the world. Really impressive would be a combination with “darkness” overlayed, similar to these examples:
http://home.clara.net/rfleet/graphdark/screen/wld06m.png
http://www.carefile.com/WorldClock/images/Desktop.gif
July 19th, 2006 at 6:11 am
Heh, Yahoo’s usability survey could use some user testing itself. When I checked “Other” and typed in “Gaim” for my home IM app, Yahoo kept asking me questions like “How many contacts do you have on your Other list?” Took me a second to realize they weren’t asking about a contact group called “Other” but were instead referring to Gaim as “Other”.
July 19th, 2006 at 6:17 am
What a great feature for an IM blog. If you could make it “live” data, it would sparkle with Meebo activity.
July 19th, 2006 at 6:35 am
You know, if Yahoo is looking into Web based applications like Meebo and the results from the survey come out reasonable enough they might come out with a counterpart to Meebo. I.e. big company, with deep pockets and nothing to loose = big time competition. But again if you look at what Y! has been doing in the last few years, they just might put down an offer on the table. If it is reasonable enough, you guys might change that footer.
July 19th, 2006 at 6:54 am
Funny, I double checked the securitycode, and this thing still told me it was invalid twice… Refreshing fixed it.
butanyways, all the US west coast people must still be asleep hehe. Te east coast is lit up like achristmass tree! (I’m in Ohio, so east-ish)
July 19th, 2006 at 8:04 am
Seth, Sandy, Elaine:
So when is Yahoo buying Meebo?
It looks like that is what they are lining up to do.
July 19th, 2006 at 8:13 am
It’d be good to see an animated map of the last 24 hours worth of activity – to watch how activity ebbs and flows across the globe with the timezones.
July 19th, 2006 at 8:17 am
I’m sure my IP will return to a Houston location, but I’m offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Would you put a tiny blip on the map at these coordinates for me: 27° 22′ 1.694″ N by 94° 28′ 3.553″ W.
July 19th, 2006 at 8:28 am
Hey! I love the map! Though i’m in Canada, my family is from South Africa. If you’re in the area of Johannesburgh email me! lang14 [at] gmail [dot] com
July 19th, 2006 at 8:40 am
I like the map except the countries and states need to be marked so I can tell where people are from. Thanks.
July 19th, 2006 at 8:45 am
im so happy that u create another site!so its my first time here to log on and i like it too much!i hope i will enjoy this site!
July 19th, 2006 at 9:26 am
nice job man??? I’m agrre with ur site….
July 19th, 2006 at 10:08 am
I second the request for a movie animating the daily usage. I’ve been refreshing throughout the day to see the blips swell in certain areas and recede in others. It would be a fascinating look at the world waking up and going to sleep =)
-Eric
http://lotgd.net
July 19th, 2006 at 11:26 am
small version of the map
it’s 2.5megs though, sorry. i’ll encode it to something more reasonable sometime.
July 19th, 2006 at 11:33 am
It appears that I will be your first dedicated user in Townsville, Australia. (On the north-east coast) I fly out next week and will be there studying for a semester as part of my masters degree. I’m taking a really crummy laptop with hardly any hard-drive space, but it’s good enough to run web 2.0 apps such as yours. Therefore, I’m really thankful that you offer this service!! Keep up the good work!
July 19th, 2006 at 11:45 am
2 weeks for survey
2 weeks to analyze
1 month for presentation to execs
2 months of discussion to acquire and plan
2 months negotiation
—
yahoo acquires meebo in about 6 months
—
4 months for yahoo to transition it to yahoo branding
2 months for analysis of IM conversations in order to target advertisements
—
we get ads in about a year
July 19th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
How about an animated gif?
E
July 19th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Hey all! Great product! Looks like a fun CA company to work for. We’ve posted a short review of Meebo at Pain in the Tech that we wanted to share with you. I’ve been using Meebo for the last few days and am very impressed. I hope to contribute back by submitting bugs and visiting the forums. No more updating bloated IM clients!
July 19th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
Check this out
http://www.google.com/trends?q=meebo%2C+e-messenger&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all
July 19th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
hey im tina from washington.i’m glad we have meebo.com to chat to all our friends and family. Thanks to meebo.com again!!!!
~tina
July 19th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
If you look, the major congestion of users is where it is night, very cool.
July 20th, 2006 at 12:10 am
I guess meebo has truly achieve what it means to be truly “global”. Well done Elaine, Sandy and I…(I mean Seth)
July 20th, 2006 at 2:10 am
Indonesia is in no. 9 for regions who use meebo
including me
July 20th, 2006 at 2:29 am
I’m a long time meebo user, and have been loving the development of the meebo environment. Congratulations on the meebo Map, just beutifull, would be even better if the map had a 800*600 resolution, that way a could spot where in Portugal meebo is the most used!
Keep up the excellent work guys!
July 20th, 2006 at 4:32 am
What a wonderful tool! This map proves how much Meebo has benefited people throughout the globe. Meebo is growing so fast I’m not able to keep up. I wonder what will Meebo come out with next. lol.. Keep up the gr8 work!
*Always supporting Meebo*
July 20th, 2006 at 4:33 am
And yeah.. before I forget… thanks for putting me into the top 10 meebo fans list.
It’s drawing nice traffic into my site.. lol. Ok.. ciao..!
July 20th, 2006 at 5:38 am
Good morning.
I send this form to you to ask if there’s a way to change mi nick name on meebo. I mean, how can i do to change the name (or frase) i logg in as?
Thanks, and excuse my english.
July 20th, 2006 at 6:05 am
This is the next best thing to be created since aol created there own AIM
July 20th, 2006 at 7:40 am
Eu adoro esse site pq é tudo tão fácil e simples ñ tem complicação…
July 20th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Eu adoro esse site pq e tudo tao facil e simples n tem complicacao…
July 20th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
How about a google maps mashup for this? then you could zoom and do other cool things.
July 20th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
I was just thinking that it would be so cool if on meebo we could post blogs about our life,problems, friends, etc. and other kids and audults that use meebo could comment on our sories and give eachother advice. i think that would be sooooo coool because a lot of kids my age need advice and don’t know where to get it from but almost everyone i know uses meeo or is starting and everyone would really enjoy it becuse everyone culd use someadvice ever once and a while even adults!!!
from
nikki
age 11
July 22nd, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Another request to animate the map over a 24 hour period
July 22nd, 2006 at 7:34 pm
i am signed in as aljj1 and i am welcomed as that but its showing my id’s as being offline how can i fix this i have logged in at least 6 times with th same result
July 24th, 2006 at 4:37 am
[quote]SkyScrap Says:
July 19th, 2006 at 3:58 am
Hi,
I *love* the map! Would it be possiblte to animate it over the last 24h? Should be quite interesting to see how day/night influences the IM usage over the world. Really impressive would be a combination with “darkness” overlayed, similar to these examples:
-
Eric N. Says:
July 19th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
How about an animated gif?
E
[/quote]
I would be happy about a gif-like animation with a showing where in the world (24h-duration) people log on with the sunlight
August 11th, 2006 at 4:25 am
hi kim
my name is kimberley as you can see i just wont to give my msn to you and over peopls on this site (meebo) will this is it kimby_byrne4@hotmail.com
April 14th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Interesting comments..
April 26th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Msn always is a problem for me, so meebo is so convienient and great!…Even at uni, when we cant download msn, i can still chat with meebo!
..Plus, I’m from Sydney Australia.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:53 am
[...] stats and a map of their live traffic. See where users around the world are using meebo right now!read more | digg [...]
December 14th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
i am a soldier in iraq and to say the least our internet here sucks i can almost never get msn msngr working the only reason i still try is to see the old messages people sent while i was offline, can you do that? anyhow meebo has always worked, always. and i can stay in touch with my family back home. thank you