The map shows approximately where IMs have been sent or received through meebo over the past 15 minute slice. Lighter dots represent areas with low IM activitiy (even a single IM!) and red dots show areas with lots of IMs — sometimes tens of thousands!

To build the map, we look at all the IP addresses of meebo users IMing over the past 15 minutes and use a database to locate the users, or at least their ISPs, as accurately as possible. Then we plot the points with varying intensity on the map in that spot using GMT, a mapping toolkit.

The map will update from scratch every 15 minutes so come back and check it out again. See if you can find yourself on the meebo map!