by Brian Solis
Facebook quietly rolled out its new chat feature over the weekend – albeit not all at once. They’re slowly introducing it to users slowly but surely to make sure things run smoothly.
Basically Chat is a new way for you to communicate with friends in real-time. To date the only ways to really do so were through static emails or wall posts, which weren’t really compelling at all. But, they worked for the time being. Chat takes it up to a whole new level of engagement, and I’m afraid that I may actually wind up spending more time in “The Facebook.”
Very soon, if not already, you’ll see a Chat Bar automatically appear at the bottom of the browser. From here, it operates like any standard chat client. Open the bar and you’ll see who’s online. Click the name, and start chatting through the new window. You can also go “offline” if you don’t want to be disturbed while in the network.
One interesting point is that your notifications will now arrive in the Chat bar and while chatting you’ll see your friend’s Mini-Feed activity, as it occurs (see above).
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Discussion
I hadn’t heard about this new feature until I read this post. I think it is interesting that Facebook is adding this feature, but I’m also not at all surprised by it. I feel like to remain one of the top social media Web sites (or is it THE best?), they will have to continue to be on top of features such as this. Soon, we not have to leave Facebook at all to accomplish everything we want on the Internet. We will be able to check our e-mail, chat with our friends, use search engines, find old friends, get dates, make plans, keep in touch, update our other social media sites, etc. all on Facebook. How much is too much, and is there ever too much of a good thing when it comes to social media?
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best regards
Vincent