Everything in its right place

The less software I have to install to do the stuff I want to do on the computer, the better. Salesforce.com gets it, Google gets it, the cloud computing movement is the manifestation of getting it, but what does the ordinary person get out of all this?



Well, you could be using Google Docs, which lets you do all your basic spreadsheeting, word processing, and presentation development without needing to install something like...let's say...MS Office.



What if you want to instant message with someone, but don't want to download the IM client and install it on your parent's computer, or your's? Sometimes that little Yahoo smiley face icon in the sys tray doesn't go over so well when you in a meeting, and presenting something to a roomful of smartypants and then 'chunkylover95' hits you up with 'ur a lewsor 4 kissing my sister lst nite'. Not cool....the message seen by all in the boardroom, not the kissing.



Meebo launched a few years ago, and being the early adopter that I am, I just now started using it a few months ago. What is it? It's a browser based IM application that lets you connect to all your existing IM accounts, whether they be on AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Google, Jabber, or ICQ. Everything's in one place. Chat with your Yahoo account with one friend, and hit up another on Google, all in the same browser session, and it doesn't require extra software.



During a recent trip to Guadalajara, I helped my comadre get set up with this. It's a liberating act to be able to include IMing in your tabbed browser session. It keeps everything in its right place.