Meebo introduces Web site check-in service
A number of Web companies are fighting to become the primary service for people to “check in” to real world locations, like coffee shops and stores.
But Meebo believes there’s an equally important need for people to check in to Web sites that’s been overlooked.
Meebo hopes to fill in what it says is a missing piece of Today’s social Web, creating a social network based not just on friends and contacts, but on personal interests.
Meebo’s new service, which is being introduced this week, will allow web surfers to “check in” to any Web site, and build a profile that’s publicly viewable of other Web sites that they check in to frequently.
The idea, Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg told Reuters, is to provide Web surfers with a quick way to find more information about a topic they’re interested in: After all, a person who frequently checks in to a popular biking Web site might also have frequent check ins to other, lesser-known Web sites about biking.
According to Meebo, people who check-in to a particular Web site frequently will become VIPs. Eventually, Meebo plans to offer rewards programs for VIPs with its partner sites.
Meebo’s Web check-in service will initially be available as a browser extension, but in December the company will offer the functionality directly within the Meebo bar that sits at the bottom of 8,000 partner Web sites, viewable by 180 million users. A number of companies, including Macy’s, Sprint and Fresh Air Fund will also integrate Meebo check-in button directly in their Web sites.
Meebo enlists Google, Microsoft in new social networking standard
With social networking services booming, website operators are increasingly looking for ways to make their sites play well in the social world.
Witness the clutter of “share this” buttons on websites urging surfers to share a video or an article with a litany of social networking services that the user may or may not belong to.
Now Internet chat and toolbar company Meebo is introducing another option that it says will allow websites to custom tailor the experience to each visitor’s personal social networking predilections.
With XAuth (Extended Authentication), Meebo says it has developed a standard framework for the Web that allows sites to automatically detect which social networking or communication service a surfer is logged onto — when the person visits another website they can quickly begin interacting with their friends on the site and quickly share the site’s content across their network.
Meebo says the idea of XAuth is to provide an open technology standard that all social networks and online publishers can join to improve the social features on their sites. So far Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and MySpace are among the Internet players that have joined the effort.
Of course, the big two social networks, Twitter and Facebook, are each pushing their own individual authentication and website integration programs, with Facebook Connect and Twitter @anywhere.
Facebook is also rumored to be planning to supercharge its website integration features with a new way for users to “like” content across the Web, to be introduced at its F8 developer’s conference this week.
Meebo launches new ads with 30-second guarantee
Convincing marketers to try a new type of Internet ad format isn’t easy, especially during a time when ad budgets are getting cut.
But Meebo has come up with a novel way to entice advertisers to take the plunge: the company will guarantee that Web surfers spend at least 30 seconds interacting with ads that run in its new advertising units.
The new ads are integrated within the Meebo real time communications service, which provides instant messaging and link-sharing capabilities on more than 40 Web sites including myYearbook, CafeMom and Current TV.
Meebo said up to 85 Web sites have signed up to go live with the service.
At first glance, Meebo’s new ads don’t look like that big of a deal – the ad is essentially a small icon within the Meebo toolbar that’s parked at the bottom of a partner site’s Web page. But a click on the icon expands into an “overlay” of up to 900×400 pixels, which can feature rich media, such as video and games.
Meebo Chief Operating Officer Martin Green says that user engagement with the new ads is much better than with traditional online display ads, because viewers would need to click on the tab to call up the ad.
“We have done this in testing and in the last couple of months we get on average over a minute of time spent, which is a massive amount of time with advertisers’ content,” said Green. “Part of the reason is you only get people who are interested in checking it out.”
Looks very promising, like a more sophisticated Google ad. If this takes off Meebo could be sitting on gold as big G is always on the look out for interesting concepts.
