Less than a month ago, Meebo announced that it would begin including both MySpace and Facebook into its instant messaging and group chat services. These two networks joined AIM, Yahoo, Google, MSN, and others in Meebo’s repertoire.
However, Facebook has now requested that Meebo remove its network for the time being, and Meebo has complied. Seth at the Meebo blog writes:
We have been speaking to the Facebook team, and it turns out, they’d like us to connect to their network in a different way – a way that works with their log-in security protocols. In the interim, they asked us take Facebook off Meebo, and we agree with them.
However, we were glad to hear that the Facebook team was genuinely excited to see their network on Meebo, especially since they already have plans to open Facebook Chat. They also committed resources from their Chat and Facebook Connect teams to do extra work with us to get Facebook Chat back on Meebo “really, really soon.”
In December, Meebo’s users grew to about 45 million, presumably as a result of adding MySpace and Facebook connectivity. Seth did not share how many of those are from Facebook, but I would imagine Meebo is eagerly awaiting getting the fast-growing social network back on board.