Online live communications platform Meebo, based in California, has teamed up with Hearst Magazines Digital Media, Business Wire reported. The publisher's Seventeen.com and PopularMechanics.com will feature Meebo's instant messaging and chat services to boost revenues, user interaction and the time people spend on the sites.

The partnership “seamlessly links traditional media and social media with cutting-edge community tools,” Meebo COO Martin Green said in the statement.

Seventeen.com added Meebo Rooms to its “Style Stars 2008” section, allowing users to look at the site's content and interact with other members simultaneously. Meanwhile, PopularMechanics.com had 30,000 unique users access Meebo Rooms more than 70,000 times during a single week. Popular Mechanics readers even embedded the chat rooms into their own blogs and social network profiles, according to the Business Wire report, posted by MarketWatch.

Meebo is currently used by 40 million people and sees 5 billion messages each month.