A couple years ago, a representative of chatango contacted me regarding a possible partnership between their service and a website I was running. The partnership didn't happen, but I felt like their service had a lot of potential. It allowed you to place a free web based messaging box on any page, and chat with your visitors. They planned on targeting the users of craigslist and ebay, since there doesn't exist a real time way of communicating with the visitors of your listings (before the possibility of skype emerged).

Now, years later, it really doesn't seem like this idea went anywhere. A month or two ago, meebo released meebome, a service that seemed identical to chatango. When meebome was launched, websites and blogs were buzzing about how great this new idea was, and how much potential it had on major web services. Seeing this, I thought meebome had lucked out, and caught a great wave that chatango just happened to miss.

Interestingly enough, meebome seems to be traveling down the same path of failure. A quick look at a traffic comparison of the two websites shows that meebome did indeed generate a lot of buzz, but failed to attract lasting users. When's the last time you've ever used a small web based messaging box to talk to anyone other than a customer service representative? The answer is most likely never.

Meebo, on the other hand, seems like a great idea and has a lot of potential.