So I tried the new chat feature in Facebook today for the first time, and wasn’t altogether impressed with it, at least so far.  Here are some observations.

  • I liked the fact that the chat window is somewhat larger than the Gmail/Google Talk window that is anchored in your Gmail session.  It seems to allow a few more characters which makes for slightly less scrolling.
  • However, you cannot reposition the chat window.  This is true of Gmail as well, although Gmail anchors the first window to the far right of the browser window, while Facebook implements a few extra tags so your first chat annoyingly appears right in the middle of the Facebook page you’re trying to read.
  • Unlike in your Gmail session, Facebook doesn’t display your online friends to you all the time in an unobtrusive way.  With Gmail those contacts are always there below your inbox and other folders, with the option to expand/collapse the list.  Facebook has the list hidden by default, and revealing it takes up even more space on the Facebook page than the expanded chat session does.
    • You can choose to keep the Facebook online buddy list persistent, but like I said it takes up valuable screen real estate, unlike the Gmail buddy list.
  • It is prettier to look at, with a more polished feel and the small user pictures is a nice feature.
  • Facebook provides persistent chat so you can pick up a conversation where you left it, and scroll back and find things you’ve previously said.
    • Persistent chat is cool.
    • However there does not appear to be a way to search through your previous conversations.
    • There also does not seem to be a way to disable the chat logging features.  Sure even if you disable them in Gmail someone could maliciously copy-and-paste the conversation before closing, but it’s an added level of privacy which would be nice to have

All in all, I’d say it’s a nice implementation but is missing a lot of features I’d like to see.  I’m also still a lot more likely to have my Gmail open more frequenly than a Facebook window, so I’ll be accessible to friends on IM much more through Gmail.  If I could link all my chat accounts together into Facebook that might changes things though.  We’ll have to see how things change as Facebook works through the first iterations.


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