TechCrunch » e-messenger http://www.techcrunch.com Startup and Technology News Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:17:31 +0000 en hourly 1 E-Messenger raises funds, relaunches as eBuddy.com http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/06/21/e-messenger-raises-funds-relaunches-as-ebuddycom/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/06/21/e-messenger-raises-funds-relaunches-as-ebuddycom/#comments Wed, 21 Jun 2006 19:39:21 +0000 Marshall Kirkpatrick http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/06/21/e-messenger-raises-funds-relaunches-as-ebuddycom/ The battle of the Ajax web chat services took a new turn today when old-school E-messenger.net relaunched as Ebuddy.com. The Netherlands based company has also secured a round of funding from an as yet undisclosed, but top tier, VC firm.

E-messenger (now eBuddy) has been around since 2003, offers chat in a pop-up box and added Ajax functionality in February. It’s been challenged by upstart Meebo since late last year. Meebo requires chat to go on in a browser window. Both services support MSN, AIM and Yahoo, but Meebo also supports Jabber/GTalk.

These appear to be the two major players in the field, Meebo from the US and Ebuddy from Europe. Both now have VC funding, Meebo having received money from Sequoia Capital in December.

]]> http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/06/21/e-messenger-raises-funds-relaunches-as-ebuddycom/feed/ 148 E-Messenger gets Ajax Religion http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/02/02/e-messenger-gets-ajax-religion/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/02/02/e-messenger-gets-ajax-religion/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2006 00:51:35 +0000 Michael Arrington http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/02/02/e-messenger-gets-ajax-religion/ Amsterdam-based e-messenger.net had the web chat market all to themselves before Meebo came along and stomped all over them, matching their traffic in four short months and raising venture capital from Sequoia.

Earlier this week e-messenger fired back with an ajax implementation of its own. At this time it only works for MSN IM. Implementation is via a pop-up, whereas Meebo places the chat box within the page. There are pros and cons to this approach. With e-messenger the popup looks and feels like a normal instant messenger client, although with Meebo the page can simply be resized to achieve the same effect.

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