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What is a Meebo bar? And is it bad?

Question:

I could not find any reference to Meebo bar on your site. I used Firefox 11
with the add-on Adblock Plus. I noticed that I have the bar at the bottom of my
screen. I noticed it when I was on the TV Guide web page. I don’t need it for
IM, which is what an internet search said it is for, and I really don’t like
anything unexpected showing up. Is it bad and how can I remove it?

In this excerpt from
Answercast #17
, I look at the Meebo tool bar that is appearing at the bottom
of some websites. They pose no danger to your computer.

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Meebo bar on a website

The Meebo bar that you find at the bottom of many web pages is not a toolbar
in your browser and it’s not anything that’s been installed on your PC.

All it really is, is another one of these toolbar-like things that some
websites happen to use. In other words, it’s a part of the website and not
something you can control directly.

Where does it come from?

I don’t use Meebo. And I don’t have the Meebo bar installed or anything
related to Meebo installed on my machine and yet, when I went to the TV Guide
website, like you did, at the bottom of the screen, there was the Meebo
bar.

There’s really not much you can do about it.

It poses no danger

All you can really do, I suppose, is vote with your feet and not go to sites
that use that. In reality, I suspect that it’s a minor annoyance. It’s not
really anything bad, especially since you’re not using anything Meebo
related.

So I would basically end up just living with it.

Next from Answercast #17 – How do you run TrueCrypt with Dropbox?

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2 comments on “What is a Meebo bar? And is it bad?”

  1. Meebo has an option to hide the toolbar. On the right side are two downward facing chevrons. Just click on them and Meebo hides. I’ve found that it hides the toolbar for the entire time I’m on a website.

    Reply
  2. Add Ghostery into your web browser and it will block Meebo as well as the other background services that are added into almost all websites.

    Reply

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