Michigan based Kool IM, an Ajax web chat service that compares to Meebo and eBuddy, launched today.
These services are very popular, particularly with employees and students who are unable to download and use normal IM clients on their computers.
Kool IM takes features from both Meebo and eBuddy. Like eBuddy, Kool IM does chat through a browser pop up window (Meebe embeds it on the page, although it can be dragged). I prefer the Meebo approach, but it’s a matter of personal preference. Kool IM also allows (but does not require) users to create accounts, so future logins to multiple IM services do not require separate logins to each service. Meebo has this feature, eBuddy does not (but says they will soon).
In addition to Silicon Valley based Meebo and Amsterdam based eBuddy, ILoveIM, Germany based Mabber and other competitors are out there vying for the same user base. Luckily, users tend to rack up a lot of time (if not page views) with the service, allowing the companies to generate reasonable revenue from advertising - eBuddy claims to be profitable.
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Quite interesting. I currently prefer Meebo because the atmosphere is very friendly. There’s good vibes coming from KoolIM, and I would contemplate using it if I saw a privacy policy somewhere. I’m scared to hand out any of my user info to a source without one
Also, the buddylist window pops up if you haven’t entered any data into any of the fields. - My bug report of the day.
Keep it going guys, looking great.
Sure, it’s a pain, but cross compatibility isn’t that hard to do.
Client kept getting “unexpected errors” with Safari.
Meebo sticks with the KISS policy (Keep It Simple, Stupid), since most browsers attempt to block popups nowadays and most support tabbed browsing, who on earth would use a popup window for an IM client when you could just switch tabs?
Guess it’s my personal preference too
But hey, at least there is competition going on, at least all these startups aren’t merging like the cell phone corporations.
Where in Michigan are they based? I didn’t know there were tech companies in Michigan that weren’t completely centered around the auto industry.
vacubei - in beautiful Dearborn.
Finally a michigan web 2.0 company
vacubei - Watch yourself, us Michiganders are making a strong comeback! LOL
Michael - Beautiful Dearborn? Blahhhh….
Rob from Rochester, MI (near Dearborn)
I like this better than Meebo. Works perfect in Flock, err, Firefox.
Of course it will work better in non standard browsers. It is a pop-up not part of the webpage. Most browsers also block pop-ups. For every user that uses a non-standard browser they’ll lose 10 who won’t be able to see anything because of the pop-up blocker.
Greetings Everyone, Thank you for the feedback,
———————
Jeremy,
Thank you for the feedback, we thank everyone who has provided valuable feedback,
We are working on a privacy policy and terms of use and it should be up on the site very soon.
The Buddy list window opens up because even if you did not type anything, you can click the log-in button to login from the popup window.
Thank You very much for the feedback, we will work very hard to understand what the community expects and adjust from there.
———————
Scott,
We support IE, Firefox and Opera, can you send us the error you go on Firefox? We can enable debugging to get the specific error for safari, version number and other info would be very helpful.
We also try to stick with the KISS idea, it’s very important for us to keep it really simple and clean.
About pop-ups, we are working on an embedded version, which is set for the next release
is already in the works, we sent this version out to get feedback from the community and adjust to what users expect.
Thank you very much for your help.
———————
vucabei,
We are Michigan based
located around 200 yards away from Ford headquarters.
We know that Michigan is traditionally an auto industry driven state but that is really starting to dissipate and others like us are starting to really spur up.
———————
Gopi,
Yes, I don’t know of any other web 2.0 based Michigan companies, there may be a few here hiding :).
———————
Robert,
owwwwww, be nice
I have friends living in Rochester 
it’s a very nice city, well its not that bad
———————
Ebrahim
Thank You for your feedback, we also work fine in Firefox.
———————
Sasha,
We are working on an embedded version, we prefer a popup because it is friendlier for users who multi-task, rather than opening an entire browser and checking back and forth for new IMS, we are also working on an embedded version in the background, look out for that coming in the next release hopefully :).
———————
Michael,
It looks like you have it running on Mac, is that via firefox?
Thank You all very much.
-Samer
Hey,
I’m getting a lot of javascript errors. I really prefer the eBuddy way in which they use tabbed chatting. I think you have a lot more work to do if you really want to even try to compete with eBuddy or Meebo. Try to work on your widgets too. nevertheless, keep up the work!
To sum up:that is one ugly-ass site.
Wake me up when we’re outta the ’90’s again, kthx.
Meebe -> Meebo.
–
I like the look of the sign in page. It looks way nicer that Meebo in that respect. But I can’t stand the pop up stuff… AJAX is much cooler/better for this kind of thing.
Please report all issues and they will be fixed asap, we are gathering excellent feedback, we also have extensively tested with IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari, there are some known issues via Opera which we are aware of, for those who wouold prefer embedded IM, that is already in the works.
Thank You - Samer
mos, the site is entirely AJAX driven
The only difference between koolim and meebo is that meebo is embedded and koolim is in a popup, thats pretty much it.
Remmeber, this is the first day that this has been out, note that meebo and others did not even have “add buddy” when they initially launched
Thank You very much.
-Samer
You wanna see something cool that does not even need a browser?
We have a little ditty that lets you chat from your Yahoo messenger with AOL buddies. Or you can chat with MSN users using ICQ or GTalk. No browser or registration requried.
It’s called a “Universal IM”
I don’t like this service at all. Meebo is a lot better and smoother imo. This service pops up a new window each time you want to IM someone and the buddy list also has it’s own pop-up. That’s annoying. With Meebo, everything is in one tab in Firefox and I don’t have windows all over the place. If Kool IM gave the option of having everything in one window, that would be a lot better.
Thanks for the quick response Samer!
You guys have a great service, and are really quick with reponses (love it).
I’ll try it out later tonight.
I want a web IM client that let’s me assign my own domain name to the service, so that it shows up in the web filter logs as “work-related-stuff.com”.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Kool Im is really coooool. The interface is pretty good and now I can chat on MSN,Yahoo and Gmail using just one window. It looks better than Meebo
Kool IM is a great service for people like me who are experts in chatting. There will be no need to clutter my system tray with too may IM clients now.
Nice service…..
You guys at Kool IM really understand the concept of independency. The thing I don’t like about Meebo is that it takes up the entire browser screen.
I’m liking it.
I’m liking it.
I like the positive and proactive vibe in their blog and forums.
I like the clean, fast-loading and cross-browser compliant interface of their site - that is definitely not 90s coding or design as mentioned above by another commenter.
Kudos to the Kool IM team.
One suggestion, now that the Privacy Policy and TOS have been published. Make the home page (where the logins are) SSL encrypted. Not comfy sending credentials in clear text…
Robin
Yay, i can now use messenger at school again, kudos to koolim!
hi my company has blocked koolim can i get some aternative links for it ..thanks.
works great in my company, i hope they dont block it. thanx koolim
very kool app.
promosing, i wil stick with meebo now, but will consider moving over when its more feature rich and stable.
Lovely service and a good start.Keep it up!
Thank You very much duke.
You have been extremly helpful.
-Samer
i love this application!
i love it, even works in my company!
so koolim people, when is the new version coming.
Nice work, meebo is still ahead, but seems like the koolim people have a good start.
nothing compare to meebo, people love meebo ! koolim just copy someone else work e.g. the look and feel from http://www.imunitive.com (see their userguide with the screen http://www.imunitive.com/gimuserguide.html), i like both meebo and imunitive, they both can remember my setting, now i stay on immunitive because they not only remember my account setting, but also provide their own account - GIM user without msn, yahoo and aim account binding.
They do look similiar, but the functionality is very much different, imunitive is slow and clunky while meebo and koolim are very fasy and responsive, meebo and koolim seem to use ajax while imunitive does not, imunitive does not work 80% of the time while meebo and koolim usually always work.
I would have to say i like them all but obviously meebo is the leader, than e-messenger, and than comes koolim or iloveim and than imunitive.
I would not worry to much about a GUI, they usually are very similiar, its an instant messaging app, what else do you expect?
I would have to agree with jesse.
meebo is nicer at this stage.
i like ebuddy, i think koolim has a chance if they add more features.
and now… blocked at most corporate sites I have visited recently… alas.
(Most use WebSense to filter at the outbound gateway…)
works here Robin
works here in the office also, thank you koolim people.
add features meebo has and you guys will have a chance.
i think that Koolim is getting there and its a wonderful site!
univ. blocked meebo so koolim works for now. thanks.
nice work.
to bad meebo is blocked here, koolim works!
i like it, goood work, seems like the updates on thier site are not really coming, anyway, works fine.
I strongly recommend the imhaha.com website, all the messages are encrypted with https so network administrator will not be able to watch what you are chatting. And because of that, my school does not block it so far.
https://www.imhaha.com
Jeff sounds like he is from imhaha, its scary because its a site outside the USA and God only knows what is happening with our logins, i am going to have to pass, sorry Jeff.
koolim, meebo and ebuddy are more trusted sites at this point.
this is a great addition to my bookmarks, keep up the great work!.