MeBeam

Google Talk and Video

Bruno Stuani wrote the worlds first plugin for Google Talk giving users the ability to embed videos from YouTube directly into a conversation window.

Now he has done one better, and has been kind enough to implement the MeBeam specification into a new plugin so that users can now make one to one and multi-party video calls directly from Google Talk.

This is great news for everyone, because Google Talk which uses the Jabber protocol, can make and receive, audio/video calls to and from anyone, using a Jabber compatible instant messenger.

Imagine this: From your Google Talk chat window you can make a video call to your friend on AdiumX who is on a Mac, and then invite a third friend into the conference who is on Meebo on Linux, and then that person can further invite another person, who is on ICQ on Windows, etc.

Instantly you have created a protocol agnostic video conference with several people on different instant messengers; and amazingly, only the initiator; in this case the person using gTalk, needs to have the plugin installed.

In the spirit of Web2.0 - pure cross-compatibility !

Click here to download the plugin v0.4

No added MSG

Next time your eating fast food, and your dish, suspiciously tastes just a bit too good, it's probably laced with the flavor enhance MSG - you can thank Professor Ikeda, of the University of Tokyo for this wonderful invention. It might be interesting to note, the Japanese also invented the drug 'speed'.

Several weeks ago, and to be honest, I don't remember how we got in touch with each other, but I made contact with a gentleman by the name of Marc Eisenstadt, who is the principle of a web-based Instant messaging client called MSG.

MSG is the complete opposite of our friend the flavor enhancer, because this MSG, is sweet just the way it is.

Recently, the MSG client has adopted the MeBeam browser specification, and to be honest, my initial reaction was, simple, easy to use web IM, but , you know, theres plenty of others out there; such as our good friends at Meebo.

A few weeks had passed, and I was looking around for an existing web-based IM, to add some new mebeam features, that I've had in mind for a while.

I was quiet suprised to find a whole range of solutions, but they all had issues, which for whatever reason, wasn't suitable for what I wanted to do.

MSG, came to mind, and I started playing around with it again - and since then, I have done a complete 180 on this cool IM.

MSG is in my opinion, the most straight forward, bloat free, web based IM front end, I have had an opportunity to try out.

The most impressive feature for me, was that it run in Opera 9.10, where every single web IM I have tried has not.

Recently, I have discovered that MSG, is supporting OpenId. I haven't done enough research into OpenId to say if I am for or against it.

If you would like to learn more about MSG, here is an interview with Alex Little, one of the developers of MSG.