The Meebo Bar is officially shutting down on June 6. The popular social media attachment displays as a single bar at the bottom of websites. Users are able to connect with the bar to their Facebook , Google+, Twitter, and other social media accounts.
The once popular social bar was installed on some of the webs top properties and was acquired by Google in 2012. Users could chat with one another across various social media platforms, sign up for newsletters, share articles, and more directly from the Meebo bar.
Google on Monday sent out emails to website owners asking them to remove the Meebo Bar by June 6.
According to the Meebo website:
“We have decided to focus our resources on initiatives like the recently laynched Google+ Sign In and the Google+ Plug-ins.”
The Google support page for Meebo suggests that users remove the feature before June 6 to avoid any site display issues.
Google will allow webmasters to download their Meebo Bar analytics through the end of June.
The acquisition of Meebo cost Google a reported $100 million. Shortly after purchasing the company, Google pulled most of the platforms services but left the Meebo Bar in place. Because of the Meebo services closures many analysts at the time suspected that Google made an acquisition play for the company’s employees and not necessarily its technology.
Meebo likely stayed active because the platform offered a new advertising channel for Google that was both easy to use and minimally invasive for website visitors.
In the meantime, there are still competitors in the social sharing bar space including Meebo-competitor Wibiya.
Are you a fan of the Meebo bar, or, like me, have you ignored the website plugin over the last few years?
