Make Your Own Google Bot

Chat bots can be fun or useful, but until now, deploying and maintaining a chat bot for Google Talk was difficult. Google has announced a new XMPP API that makes it easier to build your own chat bots with the Google App Engine.

The XMPP support lets you create apps that exchange messages with users on any XMPP system, including of course Google Talk, but any Jabber network. Where it gets really interesting is the built-in XMPP support for the fast-approaching Google Wave, which will be rolling out to a larger beta group at the end of September. This means that you’ll be able to use the XMPP API to build bots that interact with your Waves.

For all the details, read the API release notes.

Meebo Adds Facebook Chat

Several months ago, Meebo added an “unofficial” connection to Facebook chat. Backwards engineering Facebook’s chat system proved unstable, and it was later pulled. Well, after working through official channels with Facebook and their API, Meebo has officially added Facebook Chat integration once again.

Facebook chat integration requires that you have a Facebook account (of course) but allows you to connect and chat even when you’re not signed into the Facebook website.

With the addition of Facebook, Meebo now supports a total of ten IM networks:

• Meebo chat rooms
• AIM/AOL Instant Messenger
• Yahoo! Messenger
• MySpace
• Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger)
• Google Talk
• ICQ
• Jabber
• Flixter
• and now, Facebook

You can take it for a spin yourself at www.meebo.com.