Meebo was an instant messaging service consisting of several widgets for websites. It initially had web-browser plug-ins but later developed apps for the smartphone platforms – iOS, Blackberry, and Android.
“Meebo Me” was a chat window that allowed personal-site owners to add visitors to a contact list and message them directly.
“Meebo Messenger” was used to access and keep track of multiple instant messengers simultaneously. Users could log into their MySpaceIM, Facebook Messenger, Google Talk, MSN, etc., all at the same time from Meebo.
The “Meebo Bar” was another chat widget - for third parties to integrate into their sites. Visitors could use it to message each other and share stories.
Meebo was created in 2005 and had become quite successful with more than 100 million users by the time Google acquired it in June 2012. However, it wasn’t overly profitable. The deal was more about getting access to Meebo's team and some of the technology.
It was no surprise when Google announced most of Meebo’s products would shut down on July 11, 2012. Users had the option to save their data before the tools were deleted.
Only “Meebo Bar” survived for another year and was discontinued in the summer of 2013. A reason for the delayed shut-down was that, even though users weren’t overly happy with the pop-up ads feature, the tool was earning considerable revenue for the content creators.
Meebo’s team was fully integrated into the Google+ project – Google’s attempt at undermining Facebook’s monopoly on the market.
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