E-Messenger raises funds, relaunches as eBuddy.com

The battle of the Ajax web chat services took a new turn today when old-school E-messenger.net relaunched as Ebuddy.com. The Netherlands based company has also secured a round of funding from an as yet undisclosed, but top tier, VC firm.

E-messenger (now eBuddy) has been around since 2003, offers chat in a pop-up box and added Ajax functionality in February. It’s been challenged by upstart Meebo since late last year. Meebo requires chat to go on in a browser window. Both services support MSN, AIM and Yahoo, but Meebo also supports Jabber/GTalk.

These appear to be the two major players in the field, Meebo from the US and Ebuddy from Europe. Both now have VC funding, Meebo having received money from Sequoia Capital in December.