Meebo just put out a new release this week which is super nice. New graphics, drag-and-drop buddy list, pop-outs, a whole buch of stuff. I don’t even use IM clients anymore, Meebo does all I need.

The latest versions of all the IM clients are starting to border on bloatware and adware … in some cases, both. In my cruising for new technology I came across meebo. An AJAX-based multi-protocol IM client. It doesn’t do all the wizzy things like video and file transfers. But it sends and receives messages, and it archives everything in one place you can get at from any machine you’re logged into. Ain’t that what IM is supposed to do?

Plus, it logs you into all your IM accounts at once and it seems to grab and manage all the contacts you have everywhere just fine. Being AJAX-based, you basically turn a browser window into an MDI (multiple document interface) for all your chat windows. Which I guess isn’t as “nice” as having them all on your desktop. But there’s no ads, no spyware, and it loads as fast as a web page – nice.