Imagine getting the chance to work first-hand on your favorite web application and implement that one feature that you’ve longed to see and use. Then picture joining your dream team: a solid group of rock-star A-league players, who are all warmly welcoming, totally supportive and absolutely brilliant at what they do. That’s what the past three weeks have been like for me.
I’ve always considered Meebo to be one of those rare instances of an elegant solution that addresses a real-world need with well-defined problems and complex challenges. In this case, the need is instantaneous communication on the web, universally accessible from anywhere and at any time. The challenges are significant, both in terms of front end user interfaces and back end server architecture. The solution… Meebo. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to join the battle.
Clearly, no solution is perfect, and everyone around me is working continuously to improve and evolve Meebo. I am sure you’ve already heard about our most recent project announcement: Meebo Community IM. It’s got the press buzzing, and lots of online communities are already on board. It is impressive to see the degree to which user feedback is integrated into our day to day proceedings, and with less than three weeks under my belt I can already say with certainty that your involvement is crucial to Meebo’s continued successful development. And so it is with great anticipation that I get to ask for your feedback on my contribution to our most recent release: the Buddy List filter.
Since I started IM’ing, I’ve collected more or less my entire social network in various IM networks. Now, thanks to Meebo, I have access to all my MSN, ICQ, AIM and Google Talk friends in a single buddy list. However, having such a large buddy list sometimes makes it difficult to quickly find the friends I am looking for. That’s what the buddy list filter is for. To use it, just click on the text box right at the top of your list and start typing a buddy’s name.
Then you can choose to go ahead and double click on your buddy to start a chat like you usually do, or for expediency just hit the down arrow on your keyboard to navigate to your buddy and then hit enter. For all you power users who can do anything and everything using only your keyboard – there are a few goodies in the filter for you. After clicking on the buddy list, try some of the following:
- Hit the slash key “/” to automatically put your cursor in the buddy filter – ready to type & filter!
- Hit the down key to navigate your buddies. Hold Shift while you’re at it to select more than one, and then hit Enter to open up a separate chat with each one of them.
- To clear the filter and get your full buddy list back, just hit the Escape key at any time you have focus on the buddy list.
There are a few more extras in there, but those are for you to discover on your own! If you’re a fan of Regular Expressions, do make sure to give them a try in the buddy filter!
We have made many other little improvements and fixes as well. As always, we are looking forward to getting your feedback and hearing your opinion.
See you on Meebo!
[ comments ] [ past blogs ]
July 17th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
15 mins im off and look what happens :O
July 17th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Is it possible to remove this feature ????
July 17th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Great feature Marcus, but a suggestion – after searching and deleting the search string, my offline buddy group is expanded even if it was collapsed before I searched. If it could remember that and go back to collapsed this would be perfect.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Wow, that was fast. Just three days ago I asked for a way to find a contact in my list more quickly. I guess it was just a coincidence, but a nice one
And RegEx .. how cool is that?
July 18th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Thanks, it’s a cool feature! But, when some chats are opened and I navigate them using Tab key, cursor goes to this search field.
Maybe it will be better to hide this input and make it show&hide by Slash (BTW, hitting Slash doesn’t work in Safari 3.1.2 Win) or mouse click?
July 18th, 2008 at 12:52 am
HIHI
July 18th, 2008 at 1:17 am
good work..appreciable….i faced this prob many times..and voila u came up with a solution
July 18th, 2008 at 1:25 am
this is 100% improvement on im – i can now find those guys who use unconnected msn names loke “coolguy” or whatever!
July 18th, 2008 at 1:32 am
[...] can be both helpful and harmful in their candor… Depends on the chat room ambience, ‘buddy filters’, safety/moderation, etc. YPulse is hardly a benchmark for kids’ usability, being a [...]
July 18th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Hi,
keyboard actions are very welcome, but unfortunately “/” is not working in my Firefox 2.0.0.16.
But, it’s great idea! I always wanted to use meebo only with keyboard. Now I can start chating without mouse!
…and you just need to implement better keyboard IM windows navigation – tab is cool, but when you have too much windows…maybe some keyboard shortcut for minimizing IM windows would be great start!
Cheers.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Well I enjoy to write this and become member of new and new commitees.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:58 am
gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!!
July 18th, 2008 at 2:07 am
Filter by groups, protocols, or my own username (say I have 5 AIM accounts and only want people from one of them) would be interesting for those of us that keep our buddy lists extensively organized or are extensively spread out among protocols and usernames. Combining this with the regular buddy search would be cool too (Separate parsing of different words so “google mySN work” would return all google talk buddies in ‘mySN’ from the ‘work’ group).
I’m not knowledgeable on RegEx (yet) but a quick search revealed much awesomeness. Kudos, I like it. This feature is a very welcome addition.
Another idea, for power users, you could have the filter text box hide until it is called by the key press and hide again on completion.
This would require more preferences, and I’m sure many of us would welcome more flexibility as well (in this feature and others).
Oh and Marcus, I can’t find you on the meebo team page. Go kick someone’s butt. =] Haha. Anyway, good work, I look forward to seeing your improvements.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:15 am
thanks, i’ve been waiting for this
July 18th, 2008 at 3:42 am
*PRISCILLINHA*
July 18th, 2008 at 3:46 am
Awesome feature, now the next thing is to group the same contacts together, like in Pidgin.
I have numerous contact who log on with multiple IM networks, at the moment they are clogging up my list with multiple entries, please allow them to be grouped into a single contact!
July 18th, 2008 at 5:39 am
hi poh
add sa friendster ha
pinkblooming_nica@yahoo.com
July 18th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Awesome at the search feature – not so awesome that tabbing from window to window doesn’t actually activate the search box when you tab to the buddy list. Also, if I press escape (either to close a window or to cancel searching), the desired will happen but also all .gif images will stop animating, which is rather annoying, as I then have to refresh and sign in again. I’m using Galeon (and no, I’m not changing my “stop loading” shortcut =p).
I also agree with James, I’ve wanted a feature to merge accounts for ages. Such a feature would allow you to carry on talking to someone instantly if they were signed onto 2+ accounts and the one you were using suddenly went offline from network problems.
July 18th, 2008 at 6:16 am
I LOVE MEEBO. I use it daily. I love reading the Meebo pop-up blog when i log in. HOWEVER, some posters of that blog have links in a pop up. UNFORTUNATELY, the one today, like many others displays
“Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?
If you leave, your meebo IM sessions will not be preserved!
Press OK to continue, or Cancel to stay on the current page.”
I press CANCEL each time.. why would i want to leave meebo. Its sad cuz i want to see the links but refuse to leave the page.
July 18th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Great feature, thanks, works perfectly.
One suggestion tho (again): please include the possibility to switch off groups. Obviously, this is possible and easy for you to implement. I’d just like to have all my contacts in one long alphabetical list!
July 18th, 2008 at 7:23 am
Awesome!
Yet another reason to use meebo vs everything else!
July 18th, 2008 at 7:31 am
You included regular expressions?
I… I think I love you.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:40 am
hi to all..! how are u to all again…….? bye to all…….
July 18th, 2008 at 7:42 am
hi! to all people just add me hermhel_cordial@yahoo.com pls tnx……..bye to all of you
July 18th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Might be nice to make a button in the preferences: Show Buddy Filter (Yes/No).
July 18th, 2008 at 8:07 am
hii
iam designer website so I make bye dreame waver and
php&my sql
July 18th, 2008 at 8:15 am
nice comments, love the product.
I was going to suggest that you use the blank refrence in your links in the blog, otherwise when people click it tries to close the main meebo page.
Thanks,
July 18th, 2008 at 8:26 am
I would like to be able to send an IM to a friends IM accounts, all of them at the same time. So I would not have to figure out if he is on yahoo, msn, aim, google… whatever
I love meebo for so many reasons, yet I really wish I could have a pounce feature, and a way to validate that my message gets through. I find that in my transmission to yahoo IM, sometimes the message gets sent out of order or does not make it through — which leads to some very interesting conversations.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Excuse me, I do not speak well english. I mean : is it possible to hide the”search box” ?
July 18th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I think the search bar is great. However, whatever happened to nicknames? My online contacts show their email addresses and not their nicknames. Blocked users are showing online on my list and the “blocked user sign” are not there. Does it mean they can see me online??
July 18th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Thank you for the buddy filter! Just what the doc ordered!!!! Makes my life easier!
July 18th, 2008 at 9:42 am
wee need somthingg betterrrr!!!!!!!!
keep workingg meebo!
beter
beterr
beterrrr
July 18th, 2008 at 9:49 am
loooooooove that you implemented keyboard short cuts for this feature!
July 18th, 2008 at 10:01 am
i dont need a filter cus i dont have enough people on my meebo acount im on line all the time add me on soniaisthebest@hotmail.co.uk and just talk to me
July 18th, 2008 at 10:05 am
The ‘/’ opens ‘quick find’ option in Firefox 2.0.0.15.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Can you get rid off that blog window that shows up everytime I log into meebo? I have closed it a bunch of times.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:59 am
oi sou brasileira, moro em Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. Eu falo em inglês bem leve, e gostaria conversar com você! Tenho e-mail e ate bate-papo legal e sou educada e brincalhona! Se você quiser e venha contato comigo conversar!beijos Regininha
July 18th, 2008 at 11:52 am
stas super bueno de verdad mmuuaaa
July 18th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Pleeeeeease…
For every “brilliant” and genius feature you add, don’t forget to make an option in my preferences where I can turn it off. I don’t mind, that it is on and enabled by default when you launch it, but pleeeeeease allow me to turn it off, so I can have my favourite lean and clean meebo back…
/Truck3r
July 18th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
very fine feature
July 18th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
thanks fer the search bar. it’s exactly what I’m looking for.
. Ingenious.
I’m still expecting a download version of meebo. So i don’t have to leave a browser window open all the time. Thanks a lot meebo!
July 18th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
This feature is great, but unfortunately when I sign in all of my contacts are displayed as their email addresses until a conversation is started with them, or they sign out and sign back in again. (Anyone who signs in after I’m online appears with the “name” they choose rather than their email.)
Thanks!
Kirstie
July 18th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
every one can add me
i love chat
July 18th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
ginov02@hotmail.com
g20daboss@yahoo.com
and my aim freshlike3gs
July 18th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I don’t really like it that much. It gets in the way and it annoys me. Like Cucaracha said, is it possible to removee this new feature??
July 18th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I really don’t like it. it kinda makes me want to stop using meebo?
July 18th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
wow!!!!!
that was the most stupidest thing i have read in my life
(”RETARD”)
July 18th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
for those with Firefox who are having trouble with the “/” short-cut..there is one way around this:
It is to click anywhere within the meebo window and then press “/” (it worked for me).
According to the Firefox Knowledge Base on the Mozilla website, Firefox does not provide a way to customize keyboard shortcuts. Of course, if you are a programmer or like to program and wish to modify the source code of Firefox for yourself, then you can program Firefox to allow the customization of keyboard shortcuts. The source code is readily available as you are probably aware.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
m having not enough friend so i dont need filters
July 18th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
this mail only girls
July 19th, 2008 at 2:23 am
hi..
July 19th, 2008 at 3:14 am
i can not talk to my friends it is rubbish and i hate it so much
can you please not do it anymore i can not talk to my friends
July 19th, 2008 at 4:27 am
sweet
July 19th, 2008 at 6:16 am
hi iam male 22 frm india A.P seeking a good female friend if any with simiilar age preferre ok if any send me msg ok bye
July 19th, 2008 at 7:03 am
hi how are you?
July 19th, 2008 at 8:06 am
This would be a nice feature for the Firefox plugin/extension as well, which I tend to use more often now than the actual buddly list embedded on the Meebo webpage as that stays open on all pages as I navigate to other pages in other tabs.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:19 am
great job!
July 19th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I want to remove/hide the feature as well. It takes up to much space for what it does and I have no use for it. Please let us know how to do that.
July 19th, 2008 at 9:25 am
i have a meebo account with 3 msn differents accounts but something is going on becouse now i cant tell who is or isnt blocked of mi contacs, like before i used to know becouse there was a letter X over the contact name that was blocked.
Also sometimes i can`t see mi contact nickname`s and i just see the email.
there is some weird stuff that is going on
July 19th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
ok, so ive put this on here b4, but i think it would be really cool, if you could go back and put famous people, as the background. i think that most of the other users users on meebo, would agree that, the other backgrounds were a lot better, thanks for reading and i hope to here from you soon!
July 19th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Hi,
good job! pretty useful..
I haven’t tried that slash thing…but I don’t think it is very necessary
Keep up the good work
July 19th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
hey you know like aim how they have the bacj grounds you should have that cuz i want to install aim!! plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz cuz i cant see what my cuz says cuz he write in white and back ground’s blue so could u want to plz plz plz plz plz plz read my thing i will be so thankful!
July 19th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Great info – keep up the great work.
July 20th, 2008 at 1:14 am
i like this really its nice but i want chat with friends all countries i can chat only those who are in my list i want chat all over the world
July 20th, 2008 at 1:40 am
meebo smeels msn rules
hi i am rosie 11 years old and god noes what i am doing on this mad thing i must be in f..king madness
July 20th, 2008 at 3:56 am
hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii,you all,greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat bgd awyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy thx
July 20th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Please please please !!!!! (as Chris said) :
“# Chris Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Might be nice to make a button in the preferences: Show Buddy Filter (Yes/No).
July 20th, 2008 at 4:50 am
love the new feature. keep up all the hard work and good ideas! they’re paying off!
July 20th, 2008 at 6:31 am
great feature.
July 20th, 2008 at 7:22 am
I love it, I love it, I love it!
July 20th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Nicely done. Not sure that I’ll use it (everyone’s grouped via my desktop client so I know where to go to find someone), but it’s there if I need it!
I still have a feature request though; currently there is no way to review chat logs from offline users. While the logging feature’s great, if said person has to be online at the same time as yourself, it’s a little inconvenient – especially if said person isn’t online very often!
Searching for an offline contact via this box would not only reduce clutter in the buddy list, but also make it quicker to find the user, especially where there are a large number of contacts on one’s list.
Implementing this would make my experience that bit better – and metacontacts would be really nice too.
Keep up the great work!
July 20th, 2008 at 10:16 am
hey, really love the idea and it will definitely come in useful when i want to know if i already have someone added. however, i like to use tab to switch between chats and having the buddy list gain focus through this method of scrolling is quite annoying. if there were a method to disable this that would be awesome!
July 20th, 2008 at 11:02 am
yep. “/” is the default search for firefox (all versions)
July 20th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
This is a great feature, thanks! I could have use for this in the future. But at this moment where my Buddylist is still manageable, I think I can better do without this. So can we just make this optional, maybe tick a few settings in the preferences whether to activate or not this functionality? Anyways, the meebo team is really doing a great job! Thanks!
July 21st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
yay! i like this feature
July 24th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
hi i’m new on here
August 6th, 2008 at 7:47 am
hi!
i have a suggestion for meebo.com, you should try to do a partnership with musicovery.com
so we could use meebo and hear some music in the same window!
that’s it, thanks guys, sorry for the english, i’m from brazil.
see ya!
August 11th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
i like meebo
August 12th, 2008 at 3:06 am
i like meebo chat
August 12th, 2008 at 8:12 am
very good
August 20th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
is there any way i can stop getting the new little window when i press X on meebo that says “Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?
If you leave, your meebo IM sessions will not be preserved!
Press OK to continue, or Cancel to stay on the current page.”
?
November 9th, 2008 at 11:03 am
bakliyat!
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Why didn’t I know about the Tab thing? Thanks Rakovets` Oleksandr
Anyway, It’s not good that collapsed groups get permanently expanded when I search for contacts. Especially the Offline group. I keep this group collapsed, but whenever I search for a contact, the group expands and I have to manually collapse it after I have completed the search. It would be nice if Meebo remembers that the group is collapsed, but temporarily expands it when I search.
Also, Meebo is unable to send or receive offline messages in the MSN/Windows Live network. I hope this problem is solved soon.
January 11th, 2009 at 7:26 am
thanks
February 24th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
hi rosie here lol milz happy now luv ya lods!
April 5th, 2009 at 12:11 am
good work..appreciable….i faced this prob many times..and voila u came up with a solution
May 15th, 2009 at 7:04 am
[...] http://blog.meebo.com/?p=468 [...]
June 9th, 2009 at 3:07 am
very good resource.
June 12th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
thank you, güzel olmuş saol
July 4th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Saol Birader, thank you
July 27th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Great! Thanks for sharing your thoughts here, just hopping by. hope you’ll share more:D
October 13th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Any thoughts about integrating this with your notifier product?
I would love to see an IM toaster message popup and without going to the mouse click alt + space ( or something similar ) and be able to reply to the currently displayed IM or use the same shortcut to type in the buddy name ( and perhaps select from a short list with my arrow keys ) + hit enter and be able to instant message anyone of my IM buddies. This could make meebo notifier a fully functional replacement for meebo online especially if my chat window would toaster down away after I have replied but I could really use this ( quicksilver – like ) feature on my Windows PC.