I had to hop on this while I could.
There have been rumors of FaceBook launching an instant messenge within it’s FaceBook platform for a little while now. There have been rumors of them buying out Social.im too.
Well, a video has surfaced of what looks like FaceBook staff demonstrating an instant messenger that may be launching soon. (see the video after the hop).
Though it doesn’t look like it, if FaceBook does their IM right., their IM platform won’t just be tied down to FaceBook users. There are that many IM platforms out there now that people don’t want to use another one. People want to centralise their IM more than anything, this is why sites like Meebo have proven to be so popular. Your users have IM already, they get it when they sign up for an email accoount (gMail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL etc).
Would a Facebook IM work though? From the video it appears that it will be a little like the present ‘in e-mail’ gTalk client in that it will float over the site whie you’re browsing it and will maintain it’s own toolbar at the bottom.
Do you spend enough time on FaceBook (at one time) to take advantage of an IM platform?
What do you think? what would you like to see in a FaceBook, or any other, IM platform?
