Trillian, Competition, and Chat Widgets

Trillian Updates

The folks at Trillian appear to be pretty busy as of late:

They won a CNET Webware 100 award. Also, they have released version 3.1.6.0 and have just released build 46.

Competition

All this is great news for Trillian. Only one problem. They aren’t the only big boy in the multi-protocol instant messaging client space anymore. Products such as Meebo, Imeem, and Pidgin, (formerly known as Gaim) are also very popular these days. Multi-protocol instant messaging is perfect for those that do not have the patience nor the time (not that anyone should bother) to load up MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Miranda and many others and then try to switch between programs and have their buddy lists all over the place. Rolling all your im account into a single platform is great, but doesn’t get rid of the recent invasion of the AIM new bots again as I previously posted.

Trillian is hard at work on their new product, Trillian Astra. It is currently in Alpha mode (you can try signing up for Alpha testing here. Astra boasts many new features such as a much needed client integration with Google Talk and MySpace IM (officially in beta), as well as a Trillian web client.

Web Widgets / Buttons

Trillian Mini, a sweet looking widget, enables you to show users your online status, what you’re listening to, etc.

Skype has already had this functionality down with their Skype buttons with status for quite a while now. I currently use this button on my website.

Meebo is also fantastic on this with MeeboMe widget. You can take your existing username, paste a line of code on to your site, and have a Flash embedded Meebo chat going with any users on your site, right within the site!