MeBeam

MeBeam

URL	MeBeam.com
Slogan	Get a room!
Type of site	instant messaging
Owner	Ashod Apakian
Created by	Ashod Apakian
Launched	November 2007
Revenue	advertising
Current status	active

MeBeam is a video chat website, that allows any user to create videoconference rooms for up to 18 people. MeBeam does not require registration, login or downloading of software.

MeBeam is now Koowy.

Overview

The site was launched in November 2007 by Ashod Apakian, as a web-based demo of a research application he was working on, with the goal of creating the worlds fastest videotelephony site,^[1] and gained popularity after a plugin was developed to provide multi-party videoconferencing for Adium in August 2008, after being featured on Digg,^[2], and has since been the most downloaded plugin for Adium.^[3]

The site was also featured on Chris Pirillo, at which point it gained wide spread usage.^[4]

The website uses Adobe Systems Flash Player to display video and access the user's webcam. It works across, Windows, Linux and Macintosh, along with any web browser that supports Flash 8.

As of 17 November 2010, MeBeam appears to be unusable. There has been no activity on their blog (http://blog.mebeam.com) since January 2009 and the reaction time of the video response is so slow that it's not a viable service. Also, using a Logitech 9000 webcam, the zoom calibration is such that, when zoomed out to the extreme, it still shows only a small part of the face, unless you sit on the far side of the room. Perhaps development may still be in progress, but there is no obvious way to contact the developer or determine the status.

The site now forwards to http://www.koowy.com/ and appears to be fully functional.

It started life as WigiWigi in 2004 and has been re-branded as http://www.koowy.com/ in 2010.

See also

• Online chat
• Web chat

References

1. ^ Shaw, Russell (2006-04-20). "Is this the world's fastest video phone? - ZDnet.com". http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=1040/. 
2. ^ "A/V chat for adium -Digg". www.adiumx.com. http://digg.com/apple/A_V_for_Adium. 
3. ^ Monitzer, Andreas (2008-08-25). "Adium plugins". www.adiumx.com. http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=search&cat_id=9&sort=downloads. 
4. ^ Chris Pirillo, CNN (2008-03-23). "Free Video Conferencing and Chat: No Downloads! - chrispirillo.com". http://chris.pirillo.com/free-video-conferencing-and-chat-no-downloads/. 

External links

• MeBeam.com (official website)