SFGate: 

Meebo, the Web startup in Mountain View that aggregates instant messaging services onto one site, is on a drive to revolutionize the medium using outside applications.

Last month, it introduced an open platform with new voice and video services. Today, it’s introducing about 20 video games that can be shared among Meebo members.

All of that has been available to some extent on IM services like Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk. But with the open platform approach, Meebo is looking to marry collaboration with real-time communication, creating the potential for a whole menu of synchronous interaction.

The open platform approach has worked wonders for Facebook, which saw its membership more than double this year from 24 million in May to 54 million today after the introduction of third-party applications. Now people can send each other online gifts, share music and play games like Scrabulous, a variant of the word game Scrabble.