Used to be desktop applications were essential to getting the job done, whatever the job may have been, large or small. Now, with all the nimble web apps to choose from, the idea of firing up a huge application for a small task seems almost, well, unproductive and wasteful.

Yeah, sure, no one is suggesting you do away with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Illustrator, Photoshop, Quickbooks and other heavy hitters. However, there are excellent tools on the web where less, in many ways, is actually more. Here are 10 of my favorites.

1. ScribeFire - essential Firefox add-on for bloggers. Allows you to to easily drag and drop formatted text from the Web into your blog(s), post entries, take notes, and optimize ad inventory, directly through the Firefox browser.

2. Firefox - great web browser whose charm lies in all those irresistible add ons that make the whole interwebs experience that much sweeter. Once you pimp out your Firefox, it seriously is difficult to function on anything else. Yes, there are the crashes and other peccadillos, but they're easy enough to overlook especially if you are truly in love.

3. Skitch - this is the best, quick image editor and photo sharing web app that is dead simple to use. For quick screenshots and sharing photos, you cannot beat it. For Mac only though. Sorry.

4. Gmail - I've done away with Outlook and Mail and rely on Gmail for several reasons: free, 7090 MB capacity, integration with Google calendar, Gtalk, great search functionality, and the portability is sweet.

5. Google Reader - free, powerful feed reader which allows you to share items with your friends and slog through all your news feeds as fast as your bleary eyes will let you. Bonus - I'm playing with Feedly (Firefox extension) which provides a magazine like start page of your feeds with complete Google Reader integration and Twitter and FriendFeed and more. So far I like, but Google Reader is still number one for now.

It may seem illogical to tie Meebo to a desktop app, but that's exactly what's going on here. Meebone uses Adobe AIR to bring Meebo's services to your desktop through a dedicated app, but it's still in beta. So if you're down to try it, keep in mind that you'll probably encounter some problems... just like we did.

When attempting to login to AIM, Meebone was confused by a space in one of our user names. Other IM clients and services -- even Meebo itself -- aren't usually bothered by spaces. But that was our only major issue with the AIR-based app. And we're hoping it will be fixed before Meebone graduates from beta.

We tested the app with Google Talk and AIM accounts. Each logged-in successfully, brought up buddy lists, etc, etc. In other words, it introduced a basic Meebo set-up to our desktop, and we liked it. Just barely, but we did like it even though it sort of defeats the purpose of Meebo itself.

[via Adobe Air Marketplace]

Do you have an idea for a widget or Facebook app? Maybe you either don't have the time or the full knowledge to actually make it?

You reallllly want to make Wolverines vs. Dracula Part 8 for Facebook, and it frustrates you. Well be frustrated no more, in steps Zembly.

As you know, companies have been formed around building Facebook apps, some of them have become wildly successful AND profitable. Now it's our turn.

Zembly is funded by Sun Microsystems and targets easy creation of applications for Facebook, OpenSocial, meebo, and other social platforms. Not to mention, they're blowing open the barrier to entry on creating these things, and starting a community around doing just that.

Today, Zembly has opened a private beta of their site which lets you very easily create widgets and apps in your browser. Check out their blog for more details.

It's hard to get by with just one chat client these days. Your contacts aren't likely to be limited to a single service, like Google Talk, MSN Live or AIM, so a multi-chat client is a must. Now the multi-chat experience is about to get a lot better for AIM's 27.8 million users, with the launch of AOL's Open AIM 2.0 initiative.

Open AIM will aid the developers of clients like Meebo and eBuddy by releasing documentation for OSCAR, the protocol that the official AIM client uses to connect to the service. Open source libraries are now allowed to access the AIM network, and developers are free to create mobile or corporate versions of AIM to their heart's content, and AIM will now all kinds of widgets and plugins.

What does this mean for users? For one, some of the compatibility issues with third-party clients might finally go away -- file transfer is the one that's always been a sore spot for us. AOL is promising access to AIM's voice and video capabilities, too. Keep an eye out for updates to your favorite chat client, because the devs are likely working at full speed to add new features under Open AIM.

[Via TechCrunch]

Tangler is a web service that lets anyone create a pretty nifty discussion forum. It takes just a few seconds to sign up and create a forum which you can then invite your friends to participate in. But the word forum doesn't really do justice to Tangler.

Sure, you can create topics and respond to comments left by other users in each topic in the forum. But unlike old fashioned forums or bulletin boards, Tangler updates its forums automatically. No page refreshing required. So a Tangler forum is really more like a cross between a traditional forum and an instant messenger, complete with buttons for embedding images, links, and online videos in your comments.

Now Tangler has added the ability for users to embed a forum topic on any web page. You can't embed the entire forum, just a single thread. But this can come in handy if you want to add an enhanced comments section to a particular blog post. Say you want to let people comment on your latest podcast, or live-blogging an event. Wouldn't it be nice if people could leave comments and respond to other users' comments in real-time?

Effectively, an embedded Tangler topic works much like a Meebo chat room which you can also embed on any web page. The difference is that an embedded Tangler topic is part of a larger forum which you can direct visitors to in order to participate in conversations on other topics.

You can check out a demo Tangler topic after the jump.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Meebo, the online instant messaging platform with support for multiple protocols, has just released the API for meebo rooms and meebo network.

Meebo rooms are customizable spaces that integrate instant messaging with the sharing of web links and media, including videos and images. The meebo rooms API was created for large-scale implementations of meebo rooms for bigger community sites. The API also automates a large portion of the creation and configuration of meebo rooms.

Examples of implementation include:

• embedding a chat room on every "group" page of a social network
• live community groups for an artist or show
• a chat room in the "comments" section of a blog.

So why do all this? Two words: Muh-knee.

Each meebo room built with the API will run ads, and meebo will share 50% of the ad revenue with its partners (if you dry heave at the idea of an ad-supported meebo room, a yearly licensing fee option is also available).

In January alone, 18 million unique users visited meebo widgets distributed across the Web by partners and users. So if you're looking to monetize your website, meebo rooms and widgets might be the way to go.

If your name is SpeedDate.com, here's a great idea for a PR stunt: Mix 8 celebrity bloggers and a SpeedDate.com session, bake at 400 degrees, record, and release the highlight reel on YouTube. That's exactly what happened in conjunction with Meebo to advertise Meebo's new SpeedDate app.

Perhaps one of the funniest moments of the video is when Aaron Rowe of wired asks Justine of iJustine.TV, "Why? Would you like to come over and play doctor?" Although we'll admit you didn't have much time, try taking it a bit slower next time, Aaron. They can smell desperation -- even across the internet.

For those unfamiliar with Meebo.com, the site is a browser based instant messaging service for AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo IM, and more. The SpeedDate.com app on Meebo allows users to participate in SpeedDate sessions through Meebo.

[via TechCrunch]

Yahoo! appears to be working on a new social networking/chat service. MyM is in private beta at the moment, so we can't tell you much about it, but Silicon Valley gossip rag Valleywag reports that the service could be some sort of web-based instant messenger that will tie in with other social sites including Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, LiveJournal, and competing IM services including AIM, MSN Messenger, and Meebo.

We'd say the whole thing doesn't make a lot of sense, except we don't really know enough about the service to condemn it yet. When you sign up for email notification of future myM news, you're asked what social networks and chat clients you use. While Valleywag surmises that this means myM will tie in with those services, it's also possible that Yahoo! just wants to know how you use the internet.

Still, as long as we're in the realm of speculation here, we're going to make a wild guess that myM will be a Yahoo! branded web-based instant messaging widget that you'll be able to add to various social networking sites or your personal blog. But until someone sends us an invite, we'll never really know. Hint hint.

About a month ago Meebo announced they had a new third party development platform. With it, developers can create multi user applications where users can connect to each other. Now the fun starts rolling out, starting with games.

With over 200 registered developers, Meebo has pushed out 20 multiplayer games and made them available for users to play through the online instant messaging platform. Some head to head challenging games include Backgammon, Checkers, Chess, Connect4, Sudoku wars and Texas Hold'em, making the online messaging location even more tempting to use and replace current standard IM's with.

Although gaming is just a start, the next round of Meebo platform categories include shopping, productivity, work applications, music and video.

Meebo, the web-based instant messaging service, has announced that they will be powering Channel Chat across Joost's internet video platform.

Joost provides over 15000 shows from 250 Channels. Meebo will allow anyone watching a show or channel to chat with other viewers, or to chat with people with the same viewing tastes.

Meebo has also recently announced the meebo Platform, a third party application developers API, iPhone meebo, and a meebo extension for Firefox.

Meebo has just announced a new platform for their messaging system. This allows for third party developers to create applications based on the growing chat service.

The Meebo development platform launched with a set of API's that developers can grab in order to create multi user applications that Meebo users can specifically use to connect with each other. The question users must answer before the build, "I want to ______ with you. Before development begins, Meebo requires applications to be registered complete with title of application, descriptions and author's names. Special instructions and a key will then be sent out to get connected to the database. When the build is complete using either the supplied Flash or JavaScript starter files, applications will be tested in a sandbox environment before they are released to Meebo users. Developers aren't left in the shadows, Meebo will be selling advertising on the applications, and will be splitting revenue 50/50.

The two year old company is moving into the big time fast with their communication platform. They have also announced some big partnerships that allow video/audio calls (TokBox), voice chat (Pudding Media), group calling (TalkShoe), and live TV show streaming (UStream).

Imo.Im is a web based instant messaging service, from former Google employees, that lets you IM your friends from various IM clients, such as AIM, Google Talk, MSN, and Yahoo Messenger. This aggregator service is similar to Meebo and e-buddy.

Now that's all well and good, but they just added video chat to really get the party going. Now you can video chat with your friends using a web cam with just one click via an invite button. You can also do a three way chat with the first two chatters each opening a separate window with the third party.

Another feature sure to be the ultimate party starter, is Imo's group chat, which lets you chat across multiple IM clients, although this feature is still under development.

Imo.Im was launched in April and its creators are fomer employees of Google. It has about 70,000 users.

Meebo, the web-based instant messaging application that runs across all major IM networks has released a Firefox add-on giving users a browser sidebar for easy chatting.

The Meebo Firefox add-on makes it much easier to chat with friends while browsing online. No more switching from application to application or from the Meebo homepage to the page browsing. The sidebar gives users a visual notification, the side pane pops open, when contacts send you an instant message. No more pasting links and uploading and sending images either, the add-on allows for dragging and dropping links and images right onto contacts you wish to send them to.

It would be nice to have all actions take place in the sidebar, but one drawback with the new add-on is that when IMs are sent and received you are instantly booted to a Meebo Firefox tab that must keep open at all times in order to remain signed in. Meebo's line of web based IM tools include Meebo; a web based IM for all networks and MeeboMe; a way to chat with people directly from a website.

Pretty much every major chat client includes a way to transfer files along with instant messages. If you're using AOL, MSN, or Yahoo! instant messenger to catch up with a friend and want to send a photo or MP3, you can. But if you're using web-based IM client meebo, it's been a different story... until now.

Meebo has just rolled out an update that includes a few new emoticons, and oh yeah, support for transferring files. Don't expect to send huge videos over the service though. There's a 10MB size limit on files you transfer, and a 30MB per user limit per month.

Meebo is using Amazon's S3 storage service and EC2 scaling service to facilitate file transfers. So don't expect those file size limits to go away anytime soon. But this is definitely a step in the direction of making Meebo a complete replacement for desktop-based instant messaging clients.

With so many new things happening for the iPhone everyday it can be tough to keep up with everything. Here at Download Squad we're here to help. Every Friday we're going to start giving you iPhone Addicts out there a rundown of everything that's happened for the iPhone in the past seven days. This weeks iPhone news includes:

• Meebo released for the iPhone
• Skype for iPhone in beta
• iPhone homescreen skinning possible
• The first native iPhone game released
• Facebook launches iPhone specific site
  
• iPhone video conferencing on the way