Facebook users logged on since a few hours ago will have noticed a new feature – IM.

Though the announcement was made weeks back, the application had yet to go live on all accounts. At first, it was mostly restricted to parts of the US but now it’s launched in the UK as well as Asia.

As far as apps go, it’s pretty unobtrusive. When you log on to Facebook, a little message appears to welcome you to chat, telling you where to see your online friends and advising you to stay invisible if you don’t want to be disturbed. The Online Friends notifier is on the bottom right-hand corner, next to a Notifications icon and a one-click Chat shortcut.

Besides appearing offline, there doesn’t seem to be other privacy options. This means anyone in your Contacts list will be able to IM you, like it or not. An MSN Messenger or Yahoo IM killer, this is not. Perhaps it’s partly due to Microsoft’s large investment in Facebook that the social networking site’s wary of competing directly with MSN Messenger.

Since the function is relatively new, perhaps more features are down the line and Facebook’s just waiting for user feedback on whether it works for them or not.

Predictions? That users will be clamouring for an option to turn chat off or uninstall it completely.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 9:27 am under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Erna Mahyuni.
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