Google’s business moves of late have all been about beefing up its nearly year-old social network, Google Plus. On Monday afternoon, Google confirmed its acquistion of online chat client Meebo, a free program that allows users to synch their chat accounts about AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Google Talk, among others. As a Google spokesperson told The Next Web: “With the Meebo team’s expertise in social publisher tools, we believe they will be a great fit with the Google+ team.”
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal earlier Monday reported that Google was working on a local advertising and rewards program which could launch as early as July. As The Journal reported: “Central to the effort is Google+, the company’s social network, which it hopes consumers will use to interact with local businesses that now have special Web pages on the network.”
Google on May 30 launched Google Plus Local, automatically converting current Google business listings into Google Plus pages.
