Back in March, IM start-up Meebo raised $25 million in funding. While that's a chunk of change, the company has yet to actually make any real money for its investors. That is, (hopefully) until now. Today Meebo announced new interactive advertisments.

Typically pop ups, images shooting across my screen, or other "interactive" advertisements that inadvertently force me to click through to a "Viva Viagra" video make my head hurt. The cool thing about Meebo's ads though is that they'll appear at the bottom of the IM window. Nothing obnoxious about that. Users are then given the option to click on ads they find interesting. The question is whether people will actually click on an ad for, say, Sony Electronics while chatting with their girlfriends about what happened at the bar last night. Questionable.

The other leap of faith Meebo is taking is their assumption that users will want to share the ads they think are cool. They cite the statistic that 75 million urls are sent back and forth over their chat app every month. The thinking goes that users will thus send ads they find interesting to other users. Hold on, Meebo. While it may be true that word about YouTube videos like Chocolate Rain spreads quickly among IM users, its a real stretch to think that an ad for Havianas will have that same appeal. While movie trailers will likely get disseminated (and Universal Pictures is a launch partner), the key will be ensuring that the other ads are actually interesting enough to capture the attention of ADD-addled IM users.

What do you think? Is this actually a viable way to make money, or is it another example of Web 2.0 grasping at straws?