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July 10, 2006

Kool IM Launches to Battle Meebo

Michael Arrington

117 comments »

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.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 7:02 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. Kool IM Takes on e-Messenger, Meebo - Mashable*

    July 10th, 2006 at 8:00 am

  2. Ondas, cables, luces, cacharritos y cachivaches » Kool IM, otro Meebo mas

    July 10th, 2006 at 10:09 am

  3. 21talks — Kool IM, welcome to the web-based IM jungle

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  4. TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Kool IMのサービス開始、Meeboにライバル出現か！？

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  5. Web2.0Fan.net

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  6. Richie’s Space » Kool IM: Yet another web-based IM service

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  7. arturogoga » 2006 » July » 10

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  8. Kool IM, el nuevo mensajero para web - messenger.es, todo sobre la mensajería instantanea descargar messenger gratis msn yahoo gtalk skype gaim

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  9. TecnoCHICA » KoolIM chatea via web

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  10. 2803, le blog » Enfin un service web de messagerie instantanée qui passe les proxy

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  11. Web 2.0 - Что нового? Новости интернет проектов » Запущен KoolIM - новый конкурент Meebo

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  12. TecnoBlog » Kool IM - chat online multiplataforma

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  13. links for 2006-07-12 - GurusBlog

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  14. Agile Ajax

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Comments

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  1. Jeremy Lucier

    July 10th, 2006 at 7:09 am

    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.

  2. Scott R.

    July 10th, 2006 at 7:23 am

    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.

  3. vucabei

    July 10th, 2006 at 8:04 am

    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.

  4. Michael Arrington

    July 10th, 2006 at 8:41 am

    vacubei - in beautiful Dearborn. :-)

  5. Gopi

    July 10th, 2006 at 9:01 am

    Finally a michigan web 2.0 company :)

  6. Robert Dewey

    July 10th, 2006 at 9:30 am

    vacubei - Watch yourself, us Michiganders are making a strong comeback! LOL

    Michael - Beautiful Dearborn? Blahhhh….

    Rob from Rochester, MI (near Dearborn)

  7. Ebrahim

    July 10th, 2006 at 9:57 am

    I like this better than Meebo. Works perfect in Flock, err, Firefox. ;)

  8. Sasha

    July 10th, 2006 at 10:47 am

    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.

  9. Samer Bazzi

    July 10th, 2006 at 11:11 am

    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

  10. Jorn

    July 10th, 2006 at 11:24 am

    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!

  11. mos

    July 10th, 2006 at 11:26 am

    To sum up:that is one ugly-ass site.

    Wake me up when we’re outta the ’90’s again, kthx.

  12. Sam Davyson

    July 10th, 2006 at 11:32 am

    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.

  13. Samer Bazzi

    July 10th, 2006 at 11:45 am

    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

  14. Samer Bazzi

    July 10th, 2006 at 11:47 am

    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

  15. Sasha

    July 10th, 2006 at 12:06 pm

    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”

  16. Max

    July 10th, 2006 at 12:25 pm

    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.

  17. Jeremy Lucier

    July 10th, 2006 at 1:08 pm

    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. :)

  18. Travis

    July 10th, 2006 at 1:26 pm

    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.

  19. John Rennie

    July 11th, 2006 at 2:26 am

    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

  20. Tushar

    July 11th, 2006 at 2:36 am

    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…..

  21. Robert Dewey

    July 11th, 2006 at 4:41 pm

    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.

  22. Robin Majumdar

    July 12th, 2006 at 5:56 pm

    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

  23. amanda

    July 14th, 2006 at 9:59 am

    Yay, i can now use messenger at school again, kudos to koolim!

  24. girish

    July 14th, 2006 at 10:40 am

    hi my company has blocked koolim can i get some aternative links for it ..thanks.

  25. stefan

    July 14th, 2006 at 7:56 pm

    works great in my company, i hope they dont block it. thanx koolim

  26. Herold

    July 15th, 2006 at 6:59 am

    very kool app.

  27. Scott

    July 15th, 2006 at 7:00 am

    promosing, i wil stick with meebo now, but will consider moving over when its more feature rich and stable.

  28. duke

    July 17th, 2006 at 9:14 pm

    Lovely service and a good start.Keep it up!

  29. Samer Bazzi

    July 18th, 2006 at 4:45 am

    Thank You very much duke.

    You have been extremly helpful.

    -Samer

  30. samuel

    July 18th, 2006 at 8:00 am

    i love this application!

  31. Hann

    July 19th, 2006 at 8:00 am

    i love it, even works in my company!

  32. Jess

    July 19th, 2006 at 8:15 am

    so koolim people, when is the new version coming.

  33. John

    July 19th, 2006 at 8:17 am

    Nice work, meebo is still ahead, but seems like the koolim people have a good start.

  34. queenie

    July 24th, 2006 at 10:23 pm

    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.

  35. Jesse

    July 27th, 2006 at 4:07 pm

    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?

  36. allen

    July 28th, 2006 at 7:53 am

    I would have to agree with jesse.

  37. bob

    August 2nd, 2006 at 7:14 pm

    meebo is nicer at this stage.

  38. hammer

    August 2nd, 2006 at 7:15 pm

    i like ebuddy, i think koolim has a chance if they add more features.

  39. Robin Majumdar

    August 3rd, 2006 at 5:19 pm

    and now… blocked at most corporate sites I have visited recently… alas. :) (Most use WebSense to filter at the outbound gateway…)

  40. hammer

    August 3rd, 2006 at 8:24 pm

    works here Robin :)

  41. Mano

    August 5th, 2006 at 6:17 pm

    works here in the office also, thank you koolim people.

  42. Amber

    August 5th, 2006 at 6:18 pm

    add features meebo has and you guys will have a chance.

  43. diana

    August 8th, 2006 at 9:40 am

    i think that Koolim is getting there and its a wonderful site!

  44. Danish

    August 9th, 2006 at 3:19 pm

    univ. blocked meebo so koolim works for now. thanks.

  45. Dirvon

    August 9th, 2006 at 6:38 pm

    nice work.

  46. Justin

    August 9th, 2006 at 8:08 pm

    to bad meebo is blocked here, koolim works!

  47. rocks

    August 15th, 2006 at 6:27 am

    i like it, goood work, seems like the updates on thier site are not really coming, anyway, works fine.

  48. jeff

    August 16th, 2006 at 12:46 am

    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

  49. Dan

    August 16th, 2006 at 7:11 am

    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.

  50. anton

    August 21st, 2006 at 6:06 am

    this is a great addition to my bookmarks, keep up the great work!.

  51. mo

    August 21st, 2006 at 7:15 am

    I think that Kool IM is better and works great.

  52. Jeff

    August 21st, 2006 at 9:56 pm

    Hi, Dan:

    >>Jeff sounds like he is from imhaha,

    I am not from IMHaha,

    >>its scary because its a site outside the USA

    The site is right in Silicon Valley, go check their introduction and check their domain registration information.

  53. Dan

    August 22nd, 2006 at 8:35 pm

    ok and ok, seems foriegn, nothing wrong with a site outrside the usa, just that laws inthe usa protect us better if anything was to happen.

  54. anton

    August 23rd, 2006 at 3:19 pm

    i still agree that meebo and koolim are the best when it comes to web IM, others such as radius and wablet try to do way to much for a simple task.

  55. Justin

    August 23rd, 2006 at 5:53 pm

    i would have to agree, its hard to really trust outsiders with my hotmail address or my gmail address, they could log-in and see very detailed information which is sent to my email from my financial institutions and others.

  56. Drew

    August 24th, 2006 at 6:49 am

    Nice work, i find this popup style very convient.

  57. Adam

    August 24th, 2006 at 11:52 am

    I agree, i like popup mode better, i only talk to 3-4 people anyway, so having 4 windows open is not a big problem for me.

  58. Jack

    August 24th, 2006 at 7:02 pm

    i agree, i have been using koolim after meebo got blocked here, works pretty good for what i need which is basically a very basic web IM app which is quick and simple.

  59. Adam

    August 25th, 2006 at 5:28 am

    i Agree with jack.

  60. Dirk

    August 25th, 2006 at 6:27 am

    I agree also.

  61. Dirk

    August 25th, 2006 at 6:28 am

    a good list of alternatives if you get blocked:

    http://www.scipo.com
    http://www.scipo.net

    or

    http://www.yourname.scipo.com ( or net)

    or

    http://www.IMhaha.net
    http://www.koolIM.us
    http://www.e-buddy.us
    http://www.e-messenger.us
    http://www.outlookmessenger.info
    http://www.imunitive.co.uk

  62. Helen

    August 28th, 2006 at 6:58 am

    i think techcrunch needs to be careful with the porn links and problems which can link up here on the site.

  63. Helen

    August 28th, 2006 at 7:00 am

    i tried koolim, neat little web app.

  64. Dirk

    August 28th, 2006 at 7:05 am

    Im a big koolim.com fan also.

  65. derek

    August 28th, 2006 at 8:45 am

    I prefer to use Kool IM instead of Meebo.

  66. duke

    August 29th, 2006 at 9:38 pm

    Dear HELEN ( or whatever your REAL name is …probably start with S…. or J… :) ),

    The alternatives posted before have nothing to do with porn..EVER.
    ( anyway thanks for the free publicity…traffic went wild lately…probably because your post ).

    The only mistake about that alternatives list is that one of the links is http://www.outlookexpress.info NOT outlookmessenger.info

    Thanks,
    D.

  67. Bob

    August 30th, 2006 at 6:59 am

    I am an eBuddy fan: they have a tab mode so it doesn’t take that much space when I am working. I like it that they have an interface and emoticons similar to MSN/YAHOO/AIM.

  68. Jim

    August 31st, 2006 at 2:07 am

    I agree with bob, ebuddy is the most polished web based IM service

  69. Josh

    August 31st, 2006 at 2:08 am

    I agree with bob, ebuddy is the most polished web based IM service

  70. Maria

    August 31st, 2006 at 7:39 am

    Haha, yea the Kool IM logo is stupid besides their service times out on me.
    I think I’ll stick to eBuddy.

  71. Jason

    September 6th, 2006 at 10:35 am

    I love the app, i just wish it was faster and more stable, hopefully it will get there one day.

  72. Samer Bazzi

    September 7th, 2006 at 9:33 pm

    we have just added a second server, so anyone who had problem with slow results, please visit and it should be much faster now.

    also working on a major new release,

    thank you for your support.

    -Samer

  73. Jason

    September 8th, 2006 at 7:01 am

    thx samer, woks faster now.

  74. Andrew

    September 8th, 2006 at 10:52 am

    does work much faster, finally! ruuuur.

  75. seth

    September 8th, 2006 at 4:06 pm

    hey all - noticed a bunch of you are having issues with meebo being blocked. a number of folks were using proxies to access meebo (potentially dangerous), so we created the meebo repeater. it should let you get to meebo from anywhere :) here’s the address to get it: http://blog.meebo.com/?page_id=140

  76. Jack

    September 9th, 2006 at 11:35 am

    thx seth, works for me, but at school, we are not allowed to really download apps.

  77. Jack

    September 9th, 2006 at 12:38 pm

    koolim is still better because of the more traditional IM interface, meebo is still nice of course.

  78. oscar

    September 9th, 2006 at 10:05 pm

    nice app, i like both meebo and koolim.

  79. oscar

    September 9th, 2006 at 10:06 pm

    also meebo is already blocked here, seems like most of my friends knew about it without telling me :(

  80. lynne

    September 16th, 2006 at 4:50 am

    Hi ppls

    my name is lynne

    and i have been upset for a while because meebo has been blocked for ages
    so if anyone knows any meebosites plz email me on 289652cggs.act.edu.au
    ta luv lynne

  81. Dan

    September 16th, 2006 at 9:29 pm

    lynne, check out koolim.com

  82. David

    September 19th, 2006 at 8:15 am

    hey emily, talk to me on koolim.

  83. ming

    September 19th, 2006 at 8:35 am

    do koolim people support QQ?

  84. Samer Bazzi

    September 19th, 2006 at 8:38 am

    QQ is not supported yet, it is however it testing so look for it in the next release :)

  85. Shaqo

    September 23rd, 2006 at 3:15 pm

    QQ would be good.

  86. Stefan

    September 25th, 2006 at 10:43 am

    I am happy for this, meebo is blocked and now i see kool im

  87. Stefan

    September 25th, 2006 at 10:43 am

    also beautiful website techcrunch.

  88. Roma

    September 27th, 2006 at 8:11 am

    http://www.communicationtube.net/ - web-client for the popular IM (internet messaging) networks which currently supports ICQ, MSN Messenger and Google Talk.

  89. Bill

    September 27th, 2006 at 12:44 pm

    Roma, nice app. dont think it is even close to the others written about on this site like meebo, koolim, ebuddy, etc.

  90. Justin

    September 30th, 2006 at 10:59 pm

    its a neat app, works good as meebo is blocked here :)

  91. Justin

    September 30th, 2006 at 11:00 pm

    also meebo is a bit better, but i have no choice.

  92. Michelle

    September 30th, 2006 at 11:00 pm

    very nice, koolim rocks.

  93. Rob

    October 12th, 2006 at 12:11 am

    I don’t like koolim.com ….. it’s just not good… really.

  94. Dave

    October 12th, 2006 at 12:45 am

    its not bad, they need to fix the bugs and frequest disconnects, i like meebo better for now because they do not require a popup as i use firefox and meebo just sits in its own tab.

    we will see what they do next, if they fix the bugs, make it more stable and make some in browser version, i think they will be fine because most companies are blocking meebo and others.

  95. Jennifer

    October 12th, 2006 at 8:51 am

    I agree with Dave.

  96. Jennifer

    October 12th, 2006 at 8:53 am

    i use to use koolim.com but now back to ebuddy until they fix thier bugs.

  97. Samer Bazzi

    January 17th, 2007 at 11:28 am

    we have just launched a new version, please have a look at it.

  98. Billy

    January 22nd, 2007 at 6:13 pm

    Great product.

  99. Markus

    January 30th, 2007 at 10:40 am

    check out koolim, it rocks.

  100. Markus

    January 30th, 2007 at 10:41 am

    meebo is also kool

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