With all the talk about Meebo adding support for Facebook chat yesterday, I took notice of a message in our tips inbox today about another instant messaging aggregator service that I’d never heard of before adding support for Skype chat. IMO.IM is its name, it’s still in alpha stage (whatever that means), and it’s actually pretty neat.
First, the good. IMO.IM is simple, web-based service that doesn’t require you to register, comes with a desktop version for Windows and supports multiple languages. It can handle text, voice and video conversations on the most important instant messaging services including Windows Live Messenger / MSN, AIM / ICQ, MySpace, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber, Gtalk as well as – and correct me if I’m wrong but I think this is a first – Skype. I tried using the service on my iPhone (no app, just browse to the website) and it worked seamlessly.
Update: Nimbuzz and fring also supports Skype chat on mobile devices.
The bad? No Mac or Linux desktop application and no Facebook chat (yet), but that’s about the only things we could come up with for an otherwise awesome little product.
According to this blog post, IMO.IM has some other great stuff in the pipeline, including text to speech and vice versa functionality in all languages, face and object recognition, smart advertising, 3D emoticons and avatars, offline access, and more. Consider me subscribed to that blog to learn when those features become available.
Also worth noting is that IMO.IM was co-founded by Georges Harik, one of the first 10 employees at Google and manager of several of its early products. He’s also an active angel investor; he invested in our competitor Venturebeat so he’s lucky to get written up here at all (please note the sarcasm), and a handful of other internet startups which you can check out in his Crunchbase profile. Also, FriendFeed co-founders and also ex-Googlers Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Singh are listed as advisors to IMO.IM.
Surprised that they haven’t enjoyed more buzz so far.
nimbuzz has skype support, even in their iphone app… and facebook is supported as well.
Added, although the web version for Nimbuzz just crashed my browser twice. Works fine on mobile, though.
It’s weird, i just opened a new tab on top of imo.im to view Tech Crunch.
Imo.im is improving at quite a fast rate and I’m hoping it doesn’t get too popular otherwise my college might block it. :O
imo webbased supports skype, nimbuzz only in the mobile app like fring does it long time.
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This is nice. Meebo is overblown, I like the simplicity of IMO.IM – looking forward to the new features.
Fring for mobiles has skype as well.
I would still prefer using Meebo..
But yes Imo.im is also good in some way.
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windows client ? yeah right , maybe you should rethink that though again , but yes kuddos for the simplicity
speech to text !! no it’s always been a joke and will always be a joke ..see what said marissa at leweb08.. not for now at all. Can’t see how a startup could make a difference about it ..
Why do you think its a joke? Speech to Text is a difficult thing to implement, but certainly not impossible. I am certainly looking forward to this app.
meebo’s interface & usability is much more better.
imo’s too plain.
Wow, nice service. But nevertheless i’m preferring meebo
You can also embed IMO.IM into your iGoogle page… awesome little gadget!
Jim
Indeed it’s been quiet so far if it’s got some many features and solid people backing it. From first glance, it’s too “alpha” to download (if that make sense). But with those people who are backing it, I might give it a try later on.
I’ve been using IMO for more than one year now. It is improving at a fast rate, runs really fast on any browser and besides not supporting FB it lacks nothing that I would need.
Wonders me that you only cover IMO now.
yeah IMO is better but not the best. For me its always SKype.
?
great tool
very good
Fring on the iPhone is also Skype compatible, for at least half a year now… Other phones, too, I think.
Thanks but as far as I can tell it’s a mobile service, not a web or desktop app.
I have been reading techcrunch for a long time….this is the most useful review ever!! Imo is amazing!!!
Oh and fring has many issues and its only mobile!!
It would be good if they supplied a free service for other websites to host their IM (with the selected clients users log into opening in new windows by default, or with them opening in a specified space (using an iFrame) with each conversation opening in a new window (due to the need for more space).
best web service!!
Generally speaking, alpha software is that which is not feature complete, versus the beta stage in which features are considered to be more or less frozen, with ongoing development on stability and implementation of stubbed-out functionality. Seems like that definition applies here.
The Skype support is worth a billion dollars.
Yep, that pretty much sums it up!
It’s nice but so far all of these web based IM programs all look and feel like a poor mans version of a desktop app.
I’d like to see something that unifies buddy list and chat fields all on one screen.
Thanks for the nice article Robin.
Most of the credit belongs to the imo team – Ralph, Praveen and Marc who do the technical heavy lifting, Marissa our amazing recruiter, our past interns Patrick and Abram who implemented a lot of imo’s cool features, and Lejla and Gloria on communications.
all I can say it I bet they didnt raise 30 odd million that meebo had to raise in order to create what they currentlz have.
the interface is a bit too “googley simple” for me – i still prefer meebo’s ui.
the skype access is different and cool on a web based platform. i’m curious about the quality of skype video/voice calls through imo.im – i thought skype quality was superior via p2p technology but i’m thinking this might be negated as the traffic goes through imo.im’s servers.
Been using it for a while, simply love it !
You don’t need to be writing for TechCrunch if you don’t know what an alpha is – do they not screen during the hiring process??
I know what an alpha is, and IMO.IM isn’t one; even if they keep calling themselves that for the next 5 years.
I know what a journalist is, and you’re not one, even if you keep calling yourself that for the next five years.
If your intention is to save face, you’re failing miserably . . . why not just admit you’re a idiot with tits and you got the job based on how they bounce instead of how you roll. You couldn’t crunch your way out of a wet paper bag.
Imo that the imo team is awesome
It’s true, I never heard of IMO.IM until reading this article, despite being a heavy user of various chat services (Fring, Meebo, Skype, etc etc). I just tested it out and really like it, though sadly couldn’t get it to work on my iPhone. I can see using this regularly.
You write for TC and you don’t know what an Alpha product is??
I don’t understand web-based IM at all. It’s so lousy compared to software.
“I don’t understand web-based IM at all. It’s so lousy compared to software.”
Well it has a certain sense. Ever thought of using a different pc and still wanna be able to chat? At work those web-based IM work pretty fine and i don’t wanna miss IMO.IM. It isn’t as fancy as IM clients, but for me funcionality is important
Fantastic news. This means that any OS that doesn’t have a Skype version (AmigaOS, MorphOS, Haiku to name a few) can now have access at least to its chat!
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ths Shit is WACK…
IMO all ups and Meebo baybee
tehe
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السلام عليكم جميعا
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mmh love…….. is so precious……. try it
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I like it since it’s much simpler. Not like meebo which is completely overblown.
Looks like they added facebook support!