@ keny, just a quick update, I have looked through all pages on the imo.im site and can't find any information at all to do with an api, external code / embedding etc, can you clarify for me how I would get to take a look at what you mentioned above had been previously dont by an elgg'er?

Regards,

Hey have you guys tried toksta?  I have this on my site, took about 5 minutes to setup and its a free instant messenger with voice and video chat.

You just setup an account and get the code from the site that is preped for elgg. It gives you a bar at the bottom of the screen shows whos online from entire site, and shows im friends also alows you to search for people and will link to their profiles.

http://www2.toksta.com/en/public/

@ fusion - I did look at it a week or so ago after seeing it mentioned on another discussion but as they only accepted Mastercard as a payment option and still require it even if you want to sign up for their free version, that counted me out. 

However I have just given it another go and it seems it has let me register for a free account this time without asking for the above. So I have got it in place in my elgg based site but whilst the chat bar is in pride of place on the footer in Firefox, it doesn't appear whatsoever in IE, does anybody else encounter this issue?

I selected to go for the elgg plugin Toksta offers, rather than setting up a php script option they also offer.

@rob - i am useing it on my site, i am using the plugin version that is offered for elgg as well. but i have no issues with it. as far as i can tell it works in firefox, ie, and chrome

@ Fusion - Hmmm wonder why I can't get it to load in IE then *stumped* Mind you I have just d/loaded Safari and noticed too many irregularities with that browser too and not just the Toksta IM grrrr.

Thanks for all the information and discussion.

I tried the simple embedded Meebo options, but they did not provide the functionality that I am looking for. I also looked at Google and other embed IM tools, but the results were similar. It appeared that each user would need to create an account with IM service and login separately from my elgg site.  I want a tool that makes it easy for my users to communicate with each other in real time.

If Meebo would approve the use of their communityIM, even for select elgg sites, how difficult would it be to implement?