Geesee is an early stage startup from Slovakia that will combine topical web chat, tag search and widgets. If you’ve seen MeeboMe, imagine instead a widget that connects a network of web chat rooms organized by tags with access points across many blogs and web pages.
Publishers who put a Geesee widget on their page would be facilitating real time communication about the topic of their page with people interested in that topic but who are on other related sites around the web. That’s a big loss of control for a commercial vendor but could be of real benefit for site visitors. We already know that no single page on the internet is the only page on a given topic - why not help us discuss the topic with people who are on other, related pages elsewhere? Geesee is an interesting example of the changing power dynamic online put to the test. If user control over data and communication is one of the next key issues post Clue Train, then there will likely be many more applications like this that do things like tie different web pages together in interesting ways.
Geesee gets its name from the acronym for Global Chat. It should launch near the end of this year, but you can get on the list for beta accounts now.
Here’s how it will be used: If I’m reading a blog about caring for German Shepherds or selecting a school for a child or deciding whether to buy Sea Monkeys from the back of a comic book - that blog could have a Geesee widget installed that would let me do a number of things. I could use it to chat with other people visiting the same site and the same time, I could use it to chat with people on other sites in rooms that have been tagged with the same terms as mine or I can search by tag and chat with people in any other room via any other participating page.
Users can participate in multiple tabbed chat rooms at once and no registration is required for use so chats can be anonymous. Private channels will also be available. Search results will display room names, tags, descriptions and the number of people chatting in each room. The feature set will develop over time of course, but plans exist to create simple plug ins for the major blogging platforms. The front end is currently being developed in Flash. The chat widget will be available both as embedded part of a page and as a linked pop up. This will be important when navigating off site. The widget will be resizable.
From Gabbly to Stickam to MeeboMe, embedded chat is becoming increasingly common. I think that Geesee’s plan to leverage a network of tagged chat rooms accessed through contextually related web sites is a smart and logical next step. Why only talk about the page you are on, when a larger discussion of related topics is available?
Site owners may be wary of using Geesee to facilitate conversations between their visitors and people accessing the chat network through other sites, but users want to be able to confer with others before trusting the information of one source online. A co branded Geesee access point could make a great addition to any site, but such a future would run into the old paradigm of captive eyeballs. Some reputation system and OpenID importing would be very nice too. Clear steps will need to be demonstrated regarding security as well.
Imagine a service that would let you check in with other people in the market for a commodity in real time before making your decision to purchase from a particular web site. That seems clearly in the users’ interest and only in the vendor’s interest in that users may expect some functionality like this in the future. It could be a great sign of confidence by vendors, to encourage and enable easy communication with people around the web interested in the topic of the site you are on. You give me a chat box with tags and tabs so I can discuss various published experts on German Shepherds in one chat tab and the best site for buying animal care books in another and I’ll really appreciate your site offering books about caring for German Shepherds.
I think Geesee is different enough from other embedded chat services that I’ll be quite interested to see how launch and adoption go.
Comments
If Meebome is “chat for dummies,” then Geesee looks like “IRC for dummies,” organized around topics and interests like IRC channels. Which is great - IRC is even more confusing for non-technical muggles than IM, so I can see enough differentiation between the two services to use them both. Especially if Geesee is as easy to install and use right away as Meebome - Meebome rocks. It’s been great for people that don’t know anything about installing an IM client, like my mom.
I don’t really see how Geesee is different from other services that are similar to it. I’d rather read about something truly original. Anyway, the posted screenshot does make it seem like it has good usability and a nice interface, but the site doesn’t seem to. I prefer simple and a not too complicated interface (even if this does mean it’s hard to use) to a more fancy one which “provides everything at your fingertips” which some people find easier, but this one seems to provide neither. The only useful information is at the bottom of the page and it took some time to realize you have to click in the box to enter your email, etc.
Other then tags , how is it different then http://www.3bubbles.com/?
I’m wondering - these guys haven’t yet launched a beta, but they are advertising their product around.
Given that what they are trying to do can be easily added on to Meebome, are they just trying to destroy themselves?
Faisal, I checked it out and atleast as of this moment I don’t find 3bub similar to Geese at all. 3bub just looks like any other off the shelf chatroom application that can be added to a website.
Cross-site chat is nice. Just curious, people seem to like meebome, but how is meebome different from 3bubbles or gabbly which have been around for a long time?
Embedded chat is an interesting technology, but has anybody ever looked at the realistic size of the market?
If I’m reading a blog about German Shepherds, what are the odds that I want to chat with somebody else who is interested in German Shepherds? What are the odds that while I’m reading a blog about German Shepherds, someone else is doing the same and has entered the chat? If I enter the chat and nobody is there, am I going to stick around hoping somebody else comes along?
I just don’t think online chat, in its various forms (especially this one), appeals to the mainstream. If anything, people are more interested in chatting with people they already know, hence the popularity of IM. Most people, especially those who aren’t teens, shun anything else.
Hmmm. Tried entering an email address and it came with “Error loading XML”. So they should have at least THAT working ok.
M Freitas, that’s strange - I just tried again and didn’t have any problems providing an email address.
Do we need another IM player?
Besides, what’s the sustainable business model around these IM plays? It would interesting to see if from http://www.3bubbles.com/
plagiarism to gennio? gennio from 2005!
http://www.gennio.com
Again, tags are overused by so many sites now. It is almost as if anyone with a new web site tries to reinvent a new use for tags.
Marshall, just tried again, IE7, IE6 and FF 1.5 - same error…
Marshall, I had the same issue, couldn’t add my email using various browsers on OS X.
The error thing is obviously mac related. Windows is working fine. We’ll fix this asap.
Strange, I’m on an intel mac FF and had no problems. Good luck!
Finally worked! Great response time Milan…
As a data point - I’m on Camino 1.0.2 on OS X 10.4.7 and signed up on the beta tester form field.
note that in the screen shot Jennifer has her age, location and picture, I can easily see this turning into a mate and date tool. Which may be ok, just saying…..
hmmmm….. i may try integrating this with http://www.youpickthenews.com
I have a rather strong opinion that “page specific” chat/IM won’t reach any sort of a mass market, other than in a customer support context. (I won’t detail my reasons, but if you’re interested read them here.)
I very much believe there is a market for connecting strangers to each other via IM/Chat and their browser. But to reach a mass market, I think the following approach is necessary:
Connect people in the context of their Web browsing, but not on a per-page basis. I am a huge believer in connecting people by tag/interest (whatever you want to call it) ACROSS Web pages, instead. GeeSee takes this clever approach, as does Others Online.
Make the “connection” as deep as possible, fully transparent to all parties, and controllable. It helps to know the other interests I share with you, other than “German Shepard”, even if it isn’t immediately pertinent.
Give users a reason to be both information providers and information seekers. Everyone wants promotion, give it to them. I don’t see how GeeSee will attract those that have information to give. Others Online has a good value prop for the “mavens” of the Web, or for bloggers who write on specific topics and are looking for like-minded readers.
Make it easy for users to associate themselves to tags/interests. People are lazy. It looks like with GeeSee, tags are entered explicitly by users. This will hinder the utility of the app. Others Online captures this information implicitly, for instance while you’re doing a google search, Others Online will show you people associated to those keywords — you don’t have to enter them in.
Make it worthwhile for publishers to buy-in. Give them a feature for their users AND a palpable revenue stream. What’s the revenue model for GeeSee and is it strong enough so that a rev share means something to a publisher? Others Online offers very interesting value props to publishers.
Don’t require publisher buy-in. For instance, while looking at this TC post I can see 6 users on Others Online connected to me by the keywords “techcrunch, chat, social networking”, view the blogs they listed, and chat if online, email if offline. These people are connecting with each other around the keyword “TechCrunch” even though Michael hasn’t promoted Others Online. GeeSee could probably do the same thing.
Of course, GeeSee has 4 more months before release and a lot can happen in that time. Plus they’re going for the widget implementation vs. a toolbar which presents both opportunities and challenges. We’ll see!
If you try to sign up at http://geesee.com (no “www”), it will error out. But when you do it from http://www.geesee.com, then it works fine. It seems to be a browser security thing.
Thanks Nikolay, it’s been fixed.
Neat app.
so meebome is IM based and this is chat based?
why are all these “embedded” chat apps developed in flash, why not ajax?
Meebome is flash based, flash is sometimes better because of cross domain security issues.
it may also be better because the user usually has to only paste one line of code to his/her website, with ajax they may need to do much more depending on what the widget does. I still think ajax is much better at this stage as it keeps overhead and complexity down.
im me lol i love this chatting crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
check out http://www.koolim.com, its nice.
is geese out of beta?
i use to use meebo me, now its blocked, i use koolim.
you can always try:
web1.koolim.com
and
web2.koolim.com
hi. i am abdou
hello how are u i am ali
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