Logged into Facebook after coming home from the movies, to discover that my Facebook had acquired a Chat function.

Yet another thing to think about and integrate into my online communications and organisational tools.

Actually, I use Facebook quite a bit one way or another – not for the silly game things, but more as a way of quickly staying in touch, and organising meetings, events etc. Using standard email just doesn’t seem to ‘cut it’ for everything anymore.

Let’s see how it all pans out.

Facebook says:

We’ll be rolling this out slowly going forward, but fairly soon you’ll notice our new Chat bar at the bottom of your browser—no installation or assembly required. From this bar you can view your list of online friends and open conversations with any or all of them. There’s no need to setup a “buddy list.” Unlike the Wall or Inbox, the messages are delivered and displayed to your friend as soon as they’re sent, so you should expect a response right away and without any page loading.

We’re working on pulling other features of the site into the real- time Chat world. Your notifications will now arrive in the Chat bar, and while chatting you’ll see your friend’s Mini-Feed activity thrown into the conversation, as it occurs.

Chat is by no means a new concept, as instant messaging systems have been around for over a decade. But just as other features on Facebook have allowed friends to communicate more efficiently than before, we hope Facebook Chat will make it easier to connect instantly

So I’m looking forward to my first chat 🙂 with this new tool.