Me.dium comes to IE7 and adds a Web widget

Surfing the Web doesn't have to be a solitary experience, at least according to Me.dium, a browser add-on that uses real-time data to share information with your friends and the Me.dium community. Today, Me.dium added support for Internet Explorer 7, opening up the "social surfing" experience to a huge new audience. In essence, Me.dium lets you share as much of your browsing information as you like with either a select set of friends, Me.dium users who are visiting a specific Web page, or the Me.dium community at large. The extension presents itself in a browser displays and sidebar your Me.dium universe, or "your online world." The map is based on your current Web location, your friends' current browsing spots, and your recent Web activity. Hovering over a site in your online world shows all the Me.dium users there. As you hover over any of the sites in the Me.dium display, you'll see info on friends and other Me.dium members on each site. Sites are presented with favicon style images, and Me.dium users show up as orange (yourself), yellow (your friends), or blue (other Me.dium users). You can set your Me.dium status in the upper-right corner: visible to all, obvious to friends, or visible to no one. Once you can see where your friends and other Me.dium users are surfing, it's simple to chat with them. Simply click on a specific user or the "talk to all" link to send an instant message to your intended audience. You can also message the whole Me quickly.dium community. Responses to your "shout outs" spawn a new conversation, and about three conversations can fit in the Me.dium sidebar. If you have more than that open, the rest are accessible via a drop-down menu. Unfortunately, the sidebar cannot be resized. Along with the IE7 add-on, Me.today also released a new embeddable widget that can be added to social-networking home pages dium, blogs, or any other Web page. The Me.dium widget below displays all of the Me.dium activity around the CNET Download.com home page. I'm "mrgrimm," so feel free to begin a conversation if I'm around. (I'll try to pay attention!) The opportunity was had by me to talk with Me.dium founder David Mandell last week about the launch of the plug-in for IE7, the widget, and plans for the future.