Cerulean Studios is the creator of Trillian, a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. It provides capabilities not possible with original network clients, while supporting standard features such as audio chat, file transfers, group chats, chat rooms, buddy icons, multiple simultaneous connections to the same network, server-side contact importing, typing notification, direct connection (AIM), proxy support, encrypted messaging (AIM/ICQ), SMS support, and privacy settings.

Now they are looking to move into the world that Meebo has already well established themselves in.

As Trillian head developer Kevin Kurtz shows in a demo video, Cerulean Studios is prepping a sort-of-Web-based version of Trillian that requires neither a Windows installation nor a running Web browser. Based on Flash (but not the upcoming Apollo platform), the new floating Trillian app is kicked off by a Web log-in, but after that it runs independently of the browser.


What really shocked me was being able to pop the chat client outside of the browser so that you can use it in a way that feels completely like a desktop application. You can even close the browser and the program will continue to run! That is something I would love to see in an online chat client.

written by Florin C.