Times they are a changin'

I love meebo. In honor of this weekend's Super Bowl, they took their camera out and did their own commercial. Sandy and Elaine driving around in the VW, da da da. How did I know it was Sandy and Elaine?

I know this because I use Meebo every day to consolidate all my IM accounts in one page on my browser. They put little windows on the back of their page with blog-like entries, telling me what they're up to and what they are working on. Each entry has a picture of who's writing the piece, and I know Sandy and Elaine because I've read what they've written to me. Or at least, it feels like it's written to me, because it's not stale and impersonal marketing crap. It's a real person writing like a real person. The result is that I have an emotional connection with the team, which benefits all concerned. Would I leave them and use a another service? Not without a pretty good reason.