Setting Up a Jabber Server
At our office we’re in the process of a migration to Exchange Server, which meant the decommissioning of our old mail server running MDaemon. Unfortunately, this meat that I had to come up with a new method for instant messaging, because Exchange no longer provides a way to set up an IM server short of their full Live Communications Server product. As I started searching for alternatives, both proprietary and open-source, I realized my main feature concerns for a new product were low cost, manageability, and server-side controls over the whole system. With Jabber open format, I found exactly what I was looking for.
New MeeboMe Widget
Today Meebo, the folks that have created one of the coolest web-based instant messaging systems, unveiled a embeddable Flash object that allows users browsing your site to contact you in real time (see the lower portion of the sidebar). 
I’ve been an avid Meebo user for a while because they provide MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, and a Jabber/Gtalk protocol all in a single system. They also allow you to create an account that will act as a single sign-on for any of the protocols you like. One downside to Meebo versus desktop clients is the memory leak caused if left open for extended periods of time inside the browser; but I assume this would be fairly difficult to get around due to the slow, cumbersome nature of large amounts of Ajax and Javascript. But now with MeeboMe, it gives me a whole new reason to use Meebo. I can see users browsing my site and have real-time communcation with any of them! Can’t wait to see how it works out.