Google Purchases Instant Messaging Provider Meebo

Meebo, which has an instant messaging service for iOS and other mobile platforms, has been purchased today by Google for an undisclosed sum. The company announced the news on its blog:

We are happy to announce that Meebo has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Google! For more than seven years we've been helping publishers find deeper relationships with their users and to make their sites more social and engaging. Together with Google, we're super jazzed to roll up our sleeves and get cracking on even bigger and better ways to help users and website owners alike. We've had a blast building Meebo so far and we're really excited to start the next leg of our journey. Thank you all for coming along for the ride!

And for its part, Google released a statement to The Next Web saying that it is planning to integrate the service into the ailing Google+ social network.

“We are always looking for better ways to help users share content and connect with others across the web, just as they do in real life. With the Meebo team’s expertise in social publisher tools, we believe they will be a great fit with the Google+ team. We look forward to closing the transaction and working with the Meebo team to create more ways for users to engage online.”

With a large amount of ads already in the free Meebo iOS app, it looks like Google simply wants to get its hands on a team that can actually monetize social networking – something desperately needed in an attempt to badly copy Facebook. I can’t imagine the iOS app will be around much longer, either. Do you use Meebo?

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