Add Meebo to the Firefox Sidebar

I've made no secret of my love for Meebo, the browser-based, cross-platform instant messaging service. The only downside? You have to leave it running in a tab at all times, and you can't see who's online without switching to that tab. The new Meebo add-on for Firefox solves at least one of those problems: It's a sidebar that shows you who's online and lets you send IMs with a single click. It also generates attractive (and unobtrusive) little pop-up alerts when someone in your contact list signs on or sends you an IM. The only downside is that you still need to leave a Meebo tab open; hopefully a future version of the add-on will let all your activities take place in the sidebar. Even so, this is a must-have for Firefox-using Meebo fans. [via Download Squad]