Meebo Intros File Sharing for its Web-based IM Service

By Raju Shanbhag

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Meebo, a provider of Web-based instant messaging services, recently introduced a new feature to its platform: file transfer to IM buddies. Users can now transfer files to their IM buddies using the online Meebo IM application. This feature works regardless of the IM network buddies are using, and requires no software downloads.

 

The file transfer feature is available to Internet Explorer and Firefox users (PC and Mac). Support for Safari will be rolled out soon.

 

In its announcement, Meebo said its IM service now has more than 600 million users globally. Nielsen/NetRatings numbers show Meebo as the fastest-growing IM service in the U.S.

 

“We're so happy to be debuting file transfer on Meebo,” the company’s founder and CEO, Seth Sternberg, said in a statement. “This answers a huge feature request from our users.

 

The file-sharing service is made possible by Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and Amazon Simple Storage Service—both core features of Amazon Web Services that enable file-sharing between different IM networks. Combining both features provides an inexpensive and fault-tolerant solution for file storage and retrieval in a Web environment.

 

Meebo was founded in September 2005 and as the Instant Messaging became a trend, the company became popular among the IMers all over the world. Every month, more than 6 million people make use of the Meebo services spending an average of 2 hours a day. The company has investors like Sequoia Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

 

“We're pleased to offer Meebo the infrastructure solutions they need to expand their offerings for their customers,” said Amazon Web Services director of developer relations Steve Rabuchin, in a statement. “Meebo has a record of innovating for its customers—our suite of web services helps them stay singularly focused on that goal.”

 

---

---