Meebo

Every messenger, in one browser tab

Shut down
19902026

Meebo put every instant messenger in a single browser tab starting in 2005: AIM, MSN, Yahoo and Google Talk with no software installed, a lifesaver on school and office computers. Google bought the company in June 2012 for a reported $100 million and shut nearly everything a month later.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2005
  2. September 2005 Launch
    Meebo launches

    All your IM networks in one browser tab, no install.

  3. 2006
  4. December 2006 Feature
    Meebo Rooms and embeddable chat

    Chat widgets spread across the mid-2000s web.

  5. 2010
  6. 2010 Peak
    Tens of millions of monthly users

    The Meebo Bar pivot chases publisher advertising.

  7. 2012
  8. 4 June 2012 Acquisition
    Google buys Meebo

    A reported ~$100 million, aimed at staffing Google+.

  9. 11 July 2012 Shutdown
    Nearly all products shut down

    Five weeks after the acquisition closes.

  10. 2013
  11. 6 June 2013 Shutdown
    The Meebo Bar follows

    The last surviving product is retired.

The site through time

Browse meebo.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Meebo Inc. 2005–2012 Founded
Google 2012–2012 Acquisition, $100M Acquihire for Google+; products shut within weeks

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: Google acquired Meebo in June 2012 for a reported ~$100 million and shut nearly all of its products on 11 July 2012; the Meebo Bar followed in June 2013.

Our analysis: Meebo mattered when IM networks were walled gardens and computers were shared: one browser tab logged you into AIM, MSN and Yahoo at once. The walls fell, phones arrived, and Google bought the team for Google+ and binned the products, the canonical acquihire.

History [edit]

IM without the install

Meebo launched in September 2005 with a simple, perfectly timed idea: a web page where you logged into all your IM accounts at once (AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk) with nothing to install. On locked-down school, library and office computers, where messengers were banned or uninstallable, Meebo was a quiet revolution. Meebo Rooms and MeeboMe widgets let sites embed chat anywhere, and by the late 2000s the service counted tens of millions of monthly users.

The founders (Seth Sternberg, Sandy Jen, Elaine Wherry) later pivoted toward the Meebo Bar, a publisher toolbar that put sharing and chat at the bottom of news sites, chasing advertising revenue as standalone IM aggregation faded.

Acquihired into Google+

The trends that made Meebo necessary reversed: messengers opened APIs, then chat moved into Facebook and phones entirely. On 4 June 2012 Google announced the acquisition, reported around $100 million, explicitly to bring the team to Google+. Five weeks later, on 11 July 2012, nearly every Meebo product shut down; the Meebo Bar survived until 6 June 2013. The team scattered through Google, and Meebo joined the long list of products bought for their people.

Similar projects

ICQ The messenger that gave you a number 1996–2024 Google Talk Gchat, the messenger inside your inbox 2005–2017 MSN Messenger The sound of nudges after school 1999–2014 AIM Away messages and slammed doors 1997–2017 Skype The app that made calling the world free 2003–2025 Yahoo Messenger Booted from the chat room one last time 1998–2018

Sources [edit]

  1. Meebo Gets The Classic Google Acq-hire Treatment: Most Products To Shut Down Soon TechCrunch 9 June 2012 [archived]
  2. Google to axe Meebo apps on 11 July The Register 11 June 2012 [archived]

Last verified: 11 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).