Despite the unceasing plunge in user interest in the service after an impressive debut, Google is still busy arming its social networking product Google Plus with more and more interesting features and add-ons. Recently, its acquisition of an online photo-editing tool Picnik helped the company incorporate the tools directly into Google Plus, allowing users to modify pictures right when they upload it.
This spiffy-new approach towards Google Plus saw another push on Monday when Google announced that they’re now housing Meebo Inc, an online platform which initially started off with bringing together all the popular chat services in a browser, but gained popularity after the release of their flagship product – allowing advertisers to show their content separately on the side of a webpage.
Initially, it was rumored that Meebo was bought for a staggering $100 million. According to Crunchbase, the company has pooled in a sum total of $70 million over the scheme rounds. News Corp’s All Things D predicted the same last month, reporting that Google was in talks to acquire Meebo in an agreement which is probably going to be worth a hundred million dollars. The social platform gained popularity after the launch of Meebo Toolbar, with built-in chat services which also let users earn with the help of advertisements. According to a ComScore survey in December, the website had almost a hundred million users every month.
One of Google’s official statements released regarding the acquisition stated that the expertise of the team behind Meebo will be put to use along with the existing Google Plus team in developing publishing tools for the social networking website. There are indications towards a probable Google Plus toolbar, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet. Soon after the acquisition, rumors have abounded about certain layoffs in the sales and marketing department of the company.
With Google going all out in stabilizing Google Plus and making it much more functionally edgier over Facebook, it will be interesting to see what the company decides to do after bringing in development teams from several successful online platforms. Google’s real challenge, however, would lie in its convincing power and its ability to win over Facebook’s user base. Users or no users, Google Plus is clearly getting geared up.
