Meebo, the company that enables real-time social interactions, today announced a version of the Meebo Bar specifically tailored to the requirements of content sites. The debut of Meebo on TechCrunch.com marks the first content site to launch the Meebo Bar, and follows the dozens of online communities, social networks and gaming sites that have already integrated Meebo. Meebo ranks as 41 in Quantcast's Top Site Rankings, and according to Quantcast, reaches 50 million globally and 15.2 million in the U.S. on a monthly basis.

Visit TechCrunch.com today and easily share and communicate with friends via the Meebo Bar at the bottom of the page. Meebo lets users connect live with friends directly from the site they’re browsing, and the result is increased engagement for sites that integrate Meebo. New today is the ability for users – registered and non-registered – to “drag and drop” content links to friends directly from the site. The goal is audience growth for sites – the more users share content links to pages onto social services like Facebook, Twitter, email, and IM, the more people click those content links and visit Meebo partner sites.

“TechCrunch is excited to integrate Meebo into our network of sites to increase user engagement and grow our audience,” said Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor, TechCrunch. “I’ve known the Meebo team since day one – it’s a great opportunity to be the first content site to launch the Meebo Bar.”

“Launching the newest version of the Meebo Bar on TechCrunch creates an invaluable feedback loop between Meebo’s product team and the early adopters and thought leaders that make up TechCrunch’s audience,” said Seth Sternberg, founder and CEO, Meebo. “This will help guide our product development to the benefit of all involved.”

In total 100 leading online publishers have signed to integrate Meebo across their sites as a persistent real-time communications and sharing feature. Similar to the manner in which Google provided search to leading publishers, Meebo syndicates the real-time communications and sharing for integration as a “feature” of a website and shares revenue with publishers via brand advertising sold by Meebo. Additional Meebo partners running the new version include AudjourdHui, AllHipHop.com, BabyNames, BasilMarket, Batanga, CafeMom, CrispyGamer, DailyStrength, Decayenne, Dhingana, Dogster, eBaum's World, Fanpop, Flixster, GirlsAskGuys, ibeatYou, iHispano, ImageChef, IndianElement, JacketFlap, JamLegend, Justin.tv, MixPod, OperationSports, OrangeShark, OutSpark, Paste Magazine, Played Online, Project PlayList, QuePasa, SOHH.com, and WeddingWire.

Partners running Meebo on their sites can expect a positive impact on user engagement and audience growth.

User Engagement. Partners see, on average, 15% of their US site visitors using the Meebo Bar. Each active user sends approximately 50 IMs per day from the Meebo Bar. Logged-out users – who make up the majority of visitors to web sites of all kinds – can now access key features of Meebo before logging in or registering, including drag-and-drop sharing. In this way, Meebo engages more audience in social interactions. Partner sites can also drive registration via the Meebo Bar. Logged-out users are prompted to register before enabling the bar’s communications features. If a site does not offer registration, users can alternatively “Connect to Meebo” to bring their buddy list into the site they’re browsing from Facebook, MySpace, Gmail, AIM, and other leading social services.

Audience Growth. Meebo’s sharing features are designed to empower users to distribute and share content links directly with their friends, and across major social services. Mouse over any shareable image, video, or other media item on TechCrunch, and Meebo visually signals that the media item is shareable with an overlay of “Drag to Share.” Click and drag the image to lower the Meebo Sharing Dock from the top of the site. Users can then post the content link to Facebook or Twitter, and/or send to a specific contact via email or IM. Users can click those content links and visit Meebo’s partner sites. In this way, Meebo makes sharing more accessible to users, and easier to complete. Available today, the Meebo Bar can automatically detect shareable content on the partner site and enable this feature via a simple “one-command” sharing API. Partners can further customize the implementation to optimize the user experience.

“Meebo makes sharing extremely intuitive for users, and super simple to integrate for blogs,” said Ted Rheingold, founder and CEO, Dogster. “We’re excited to track and measure the impact Meebo has on our engagement and audience growth.”

For partners interested in integrating the Meebo Bar into their site(s), the implementation requires a development commitment of only a few days. If a site does not have a registration system, like TechCrunch, then the Meebo Bar takes only minutes to deploy. For more information about ways to work with Meebo, please visit business.meebo.com.

About Meebo, Inc.

With 50 million people sharing over 5 billion messages and 75 million links every month, Meebo is one of the Web’s fastest growing social media companies. Founded in September 2005, Meebo enables real-time social interactions with instant messaging and group chat at meebo.com and on partner sites across the Web. Meebo is headquartered in Mountain View, CA. Visit meebo.com to connect with friends live on the Web.

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