That, and heading off future competition. If Google were planning, for example, on releasing a multi-protocol web chat application of their own in the next few

That, and heading off future competition. If Google were planning, for example, on releasing a multi-protocol web chat application of their own in the next few weeks, this would be a well-timed move. Using Meebo's code base to make their own application might have been preferable to rebranding it in this case.