In the beginning, there was instant messaging. And it was good at a lot of things. But not everything. The subtle nuances of modern communication sometimes require face time. With new web-based video chat services, you can replace that : ) with a real, live smiley face.

As Om pointed out last night, popular web-based IM service Meebo just launched its Meebo Platform, creating a set of APIs that developers can use to build different applications. The first set of Meebo Platform partners includes web-based video chat service Tokbox.

But Meebo is not alone in this space.

With its clean design and ability to connect you to multiple IM services, upstart IMO.IM is another web-based chat tool that is very reminiscent of Meebo. The company, founded by ex-Googlers, offers both text and video chat through the browser, with no downloads.

And not to be left out, Yahoo released the beta of it’s Yahoo Messenger 9.0, sporting an in-line media player for sharing video.

Although these service are unlikely to signal the death of the emoticon anytime soon, the fact that they are free and you don’t have to mess around with installation is something we can all smile about.