The guys who spent a lazy weekend writing a free iPhone IM client that currently has 30,000 users, Flick.IM, are back with a web chat client for AIM, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber. I know, another multi-service chat client – *sigh*. There’s already Meebo, eBuddy, KoolIM, and a host of other services integrating existing chat services. However, Flick.IM has a rather significant twist, they’re acting as a platform for integrating web applications into IM.
FlickIM is letting applications integrate right into chat messages or as widgets along a sidebar. For instance, a Yelp widget will let users search for restaurants and send the reviews to friends through a chat message. Similar to Facebook, users will be able to add and remove the applications and notify their friends about what apps they have installed. Another startup, Imified, integrates web applications into IM, but does this for desktop chat applications through commands to chat bots. Facebook is also a company to watch for this functionality.
For now Flick.IM has launched with a handful applications, but will soon let developers add their own widgets and services to the platform through an API released in the next two to three weeks. All the new applications and information will be available at Flickapps.com. While the depth of the API is still under scrutiny, it may even let developers provide contextually based services by scanning user’s conversations (with permission). For instance, if you’re talking about a movie, a Flick.IM application could automatically provide links and times for that movie.
Their starting applications included six widgets and two integrated services. The integrated services allow you to embed photos and videos right into chat messages. Photos are shared by uploadeding them directly, while videos can pulled from a YouTube video search by typing “/video VIDEONAME”. Non-Flick.IM users will get links to the pictures and videos instead of an embed. Widgets include restaurant search on Yelp, Google Gmail, Last.fm radio, LiveNation, Yoink’d video search, and a beercam for kicks. The Yelp widget has the greatest amount of integration right now. It lets you run a quick restaurant search and send the link to your chat box.
Flick.IM has broader ambitions than this IM client, with an overall focus on real-time social networking. The chat client will eventually be one of many services incorporated in a new domain to be launched in the coming months.
Wow…this is raDDD. FlickIM whipped it out major on Meebo’s forehead.
more contrived use-cases that sound good in a meeting but never happen in reality, like:
“For instance, a Yelp widget will let users search for restaurants and send the reviews to friends through a chat message.”
who does this? who even wants to do this?
was a big picture of darian’s face in the middle really necessarry?
talk about self centered….
hey…i didn’t take the screen shot. sorry if it offends anyone.
Crazymenu.com pick-a-place, already has IM integration for telling your friends where you want to go eat and a lot more!
http://www.craz...u.com/groupPick
relax, i was just kidding…
I just tried it out, its actually really cool.
Though the welp widget doesn’t seem to be working.
haha no problem. we’re working on the yelp widget right now – there seems to be some problem with it rendering in IE and Safari, but it works fine in Firefox though.
there goes nick again mentioning Yelp! you must really really like those guys
This is Samer from KoolIM.
We already have support for News, Weather, Stocks, and other content channels. We have had these since the day we launched, We also have a developer API which is part of our platform but has yet to be published.
Look out for a Major announcment and release from KoolIM.
Seems like there are so many sites that are better than the one TC covers now and most are self-funded. Not to take anything away, but when you do a 1.6 million series A round you better have something a lot better than the self-funded sites.
I just tried KoolIM with my AIM account. It crashed. Tried it again and it crashed. Tried it a third time and it gave me “An unexpected client error has occored. Please try to relogin. Web messenger”. Tried it a forth time and it encrypted my password and then gave me a fatal error. I guest that’s why the current version KoolIM is called Beta…too bad.
i get the same error for koolim.
seems like the apps on flickim are pretty sweet compared to the apps on koolim. the fact that flickim already has their api working and these sweet apps like yelp and lastfm makes koolim and meebo boring…
I love it how so many companies try to advertise their products on someone else’s press…instead of trying to steal users from someone else’s story, why not get some buzz on your own product?!?
I went to KoolIM, and the only thing that seemed to work were their Google Ads, Banners, and all that other stuff consuming their page.
I’ve used meebo in the past, but I think the loading time in FlickIM is much better, and I also prefer the Flick layout. I had never even heard of KoolIM until this discussion, and after checking it out today, I’ll never do so again. Yuck.
Hi there,
1. James I agree 100%. If you have big bucks, something better show, in this era of web 2.0, open source, and cheap over seas labor, deploying products or services and deploying them is easier than ever.
2. Robert and Jeffery.I just tried the app in opera, FF and IE 6 + 7, FF on Linux and Safari on Mac. I tried using 5 different AIM accounts, some with 2 buddies, some with 100. Works fine, try again.
3. William J. This was not an attempt to tak the Buzz from Flick.IM. I simply stated that we have been mixing content + services + bots + IM for almosy 18 months now. Is thier a crime in stating that you have been doing something that was mentioned as “new”. I dont think so.
4. Meebo is an excellent product, those who worry about load in the broadband world should not, speed is getting faster and faster, thus, why web 2.0, video and audio on the web has taken off.
5. If netvibes was to add IM, than what makes Flick.IM unique in any case, that is all the content + services +aggregation and IM.
6. About the Google ads, that is a method of monetization, it is also part of our overall and general testing. It makes money, i will not lie but users dont mind ads as long as the service is useful and the ads are not overwhelming. You cant expect an ad free site that gives it service for free, this is why the first internet bubble happened, no one was making money, all they were doing was spending money.
Thank You so much. I wish everyone the best of luck
samer, to be honest, koolim is really just a bad product.
Your entitled to your own opinion.
i believe the correct word to use there would be “You’re” and not “Your”.
Come on IM’rs… what happened to using Ur’ 4 all Ur BF’s ?
Let me guess who these posters are
uhm, uhm.
Anyway, time will tell who will be the winners in this space.
Greetings Everyone…Andy from FlickIM here. I’ve had the pleasure of chatting directly with many of you and wanted to thank everyone for the lovely feedback and support. We pride ourselves on creating user-driven products, and without this user feedback we wouldn’t have been able to come as far as we have today. I’d like to take a few moments and address some of the comments posted here. However, I always welcome direct feedback and conversation sent to me directly at andy@flickim.com as well.
Whoopie: our first run of widgets were inspired by our engineers’ personal needs and preferences for what information they would like to access while in online conversation. Indeed these widgets may not apply to all of our users’ sensibilities, and this is precisely why I encourage users such as yourself to let us know what they would like to see on our site. We have opened widget development to anyone who wants to personally take on the task as well, however we’d be happy to funnel your ideas directly into our pipeline.
Ben: CEOs. Go figure.
James: A discriminating user…I likes. I cannot say too much at the moment (which is quite difficult for me), however we have been hard at work developing our premier product that we feel will genuinely usher in the next stage of online communication. In essence, this is where our piggy back is headed, and all that we have done up to this point is to prepare users (and ourselves) for this main event. Keep it tuned.
Thanks again for everyone’s input, and keep flicking it up…
also one that i think it’s worth to check out is MINGLE. A social network in adobe flash with IM, photo galleries a lot more features…