Chatty Chatty Chat
I’ve got two or three brilliant Facebook Idiots ready to post, but I figured I should take a minute to talk about Facebook’s new chat feature. Initial impressions? Kinda useful, if not a few years too late and a bit pointless…
I don’t like how it hovers down in the corner of my screen. It’s like one of those annoying widgets that computer makers think people enjoy having around. News flash, we find them fucking annoying. It needs to be moved and it needs to be moved now or people are going to hate it within days.
As for the actual features it provides, I will concede that the instant notifications for messages, wall posts, etc. are pretty handy. I’m not a fan of refreshing sites to see if something is new or updated and thankfully, that’s a thing of the past with Facebook now. Unfortunately, that little notifications feature was supposed to be an add-on to an even bigger feature - the chat!
Seriously, did Facebook think people were going to fall head over heals in love with ANOTHER Instant Messenger program? When Google has trouble getting theirs off the ground (who even uses GTalk now?), then that should tell you the market is severely over-saturated.
At the same time, I guess Facebook is as good a place as any to start a new chat program. All of your friends are theoretically already on it all day, though from looking at my list of available friends I’m doubting that assumption. Call me crazy, but I think the days of people simply turning on their messaging program of choice 24/7 just in case somebody wants to talk to them is over. It’s called cell phones, everybody has one and it’s a hell of a lot quicker and convenient!
Whatever, in the end, it’s just another bell and whistle that improves the site a little over what they had before but really isn’t groundbreaking or earth shattering.
But move it out of the corner and find a new place to put it!
