Facebook Chat on your Instant Messenger

Design meets technology. After facebook got a new look last week, we now have a new feature as well. We’ve already found facebook to be the best of social networks to plug into. But for some reason or the other, people have always criticized that chat feature. Now, after a better placement of facebook chat, it has been made available over the Jabber/XMPP protocols as well.

What does Jabber/XMPP protocol mean?

In a way, it’s an open protocol that allows a chat client or web service to integrate Facebook Chat. Think of Google chat, for that matter.</blockquote>

That refers to the fact that you can chat with your buddies who’re online on facebook without logging on to the social network. You do not miss out on real time chat even when you’re not on the web browser.

Now, that shall be an enabler to increase the usage of the existing chat feature. You would want to check out supported clients and the possible ways to connect to facebook chat using them. The list includes iChat, Pidgin, Adium, Miranda and more.

Not just this, it also has a support for Facebook Chat into Facebook Connect for developers who intend to build chat experiences onto their applications or websites.

Would this possibly be the next great medium for instant messaging, after Google, Yahoo and MSN already having their share of the IM pie? Facebook is already a complete suit to fit in most networking requirements – from status updates to picture upload, to sharing interesting articles and news.

Rumors are that facebook email, something refered to as project Titan shall be the next big thing which might be the next major roll out from world’s leading social network.

The package is growing larger, with time. The concept of status update has held the world to a large extent. Google Buzz is just an example of how relevant updating a status is, for people who have incorporated social media in their daily use itinerary.

Micro-blogging was an enabler to get real time, user generated content. Twitter, facebook updates and now Google buzz are tools on this layer.

What do you think shall be the next big thing on social space? What do you as a user look forward to?