• by Laurie Petersen , May 15, 2007

Instant messaging Web site meebo yesterday launched meebo rooms, enabling visitors to share, chat and view media live within meebo.com or on their own pages. Several advertising units within the rich media are also being tested to support the effort, which targets the so-called millennials from ages 18-29.

Content launch partners are Capitol Music Group, CNET, Flixster, Hearst's Popular Mechanics, Jive Records, MTV Networks' GameTrailers.com, NBC Universal, RockYou, Sugar Publishing, Veoh, Wenner Media's US Weekly's US TV, and VIBE magazine.

Initial test advertisers are Eidos, makers of Tomb Raider, Sony, for the PSP, and Blockbuster.

Video ad networks involved in the test are Broadband Enterprises, VideoEgg and Yume Networks.

"There's an entire generation who have abandoned email and are using IM," said Martin Green, vice president of business for meebo, claiming more than 1 million meebo sessions are initiated daily with a typical session ranging from 17 minutes to more than an hour in length.

Ads will include 15- and 30-second video clips, but none will be served unless there is a lull in the media being queued up, Green said. "We will layer in more formats as we learn more," he said.

Founded in 2005, meebo's investors include Sequoia Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.