MUMBAI: Search engine giant Google Inc has acquired Meebo, the social media startup, reportedly at an estimated $100 million.

The move can be seen as a bid from Google towards bolstering its social networking media platform Google+, which was launched to rival popular platform Facebook.

Founded in 2005, Meebo is a consumer internet company focused on driving user engagement across the web. Its flagship product, the Meebo Bar, provides publishers and advertisers ways to leverage by weaving content engagement and brand experiences into the consumer‘s web experience.

"Together with Google, we‘re super jazzed to roll up our sleeves and get cracking on even bigger and better ways to help users and website owners alike," Meebo‘s official blog stated.

"With the Meebo team‘s expertise in social publisher tools, we believe they will be a great fit with the Google+ team," Google said in a statement.

Meebo has so far raised $70 million since launch. One round of funding in 2008 valued the company at around $200 million.