I read with interest this morning that Facebook was going to be getting an Instant Messaging client (IM). It would be fun to have something that was integrated into the whole Facebook experience and the feature list included:
- No Registration
- No Initialisation
- No Download
- All your friends in one IM
Sounds too good to be true? Well, further digging indicated that this isn’t really something that Facebook was producing, but rather an application that lives under FaceBook (yeah, another one). So what the blurb doesn’t mention is that you need to Activate this plugin, Pester everyone you know to use it and still be only limited to those of your friends who choose to activate this plugin amongst the plethora of application available on Facebook.
The discussion around this subject focuses around the fact that there are already a number of different ways to communicate with your friends on Facebook, so no USP here.? Also, MySpace tried this in the past, but with limited success. It’s also been noted that this is further proof that Facebook is a platform rather than a medium. Personally, I’m sceptical as to how much traction this application will achieve, but I’ll try it out and keep you posted.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, there’s already a number of IM applications for Facebook, but they all revolve around external IM networks, rather than one built specifically for Facebook.