There have been some questions and comments about my position on this so here goes. Two weeks ago when Mark skyped me to ask if I thought they were doing the right thing, I was quite skeptical. Luckily he listened to me when I suggested he re-arrange the chat windows horizontally rather than vertically. As I explained to him, the side has more pixels than the top.

Anyway, I’m glad they did it and here’s why:

1. Not having chat on Facebook is stupid, people obviously use the platform to communicate
2. My Facebook contacts and my Gtalk contacts are different and often I want to chat with Facebook friends. This is a major pain when you have to send messages back and forth to agree on what chat platform, what invitation process etc etc
3. Time on site is going to be one of the biggest metrics for advertising in the future and with Ajax and other RIA technologies the frequency of advertising displays is no longer tied to the page impression. This chat platform will increase the attention paid to any given FB page as well as the average time on site
4. People I know use FB as an email replacement. Personally I think this is a bad thing but extending chat into it means that for many, FB will become their primary communication channel with people online.
5. The chat app is well-executed and will be adjusted over time as privacy and usability issues become more apparent.
6. Over the next month is probably going to be the best time in FB’s history to sell

I mostly agree with what Stii has said about it though my initial reaction was more instinctive and less analytical. I liked it from the minute I saw it and it made complete sense.