Well, it’s been over two months since Facebook integrated chat into its offerings. In my preview post, I said that Facebook Chat “will probably have the most significant impact on the user experience since the introduction of the News Feed” and that it would “revolutionize the social networking experience.” Harping on the real-time notification feature rolled out with Facebook Chat, I wrote:
This is but one example of how Facebook wants to turn your asynchronous social networking experience into a synchronous one. By being able to instantly notify you of changes in and updates to your social graph, they give you the feeling that you are actively engaging and interacting with your friends. Your graph is no longer a snapshot, but a moving, fluid web of connections and content. Of course, by giving you that feeling they also want to attract you to stay online longer to see more ads. Genius.
Boy, did I have it wrong.
Not once have I engaged in a chat session with any of my friends. Not once. No one has chatted with me, either. I have yet to receive a real-time notification, though I suppose on the day that I do happen to be online when someone pokes me… well, that will be nifty, I guess.
Your experience may be different than mine (and I hope you’ll pipe up in the comments if it has been), but the only usefulness I’ve gotten out of Facebook Chat is seeing when people are online. And that is only mildly interesting. The only people that I would ever chat with are already in my Google Talk list, and that is open all day through Gmail. Why would I start a conversation with someone on Facebook?
Have you used Facebook Chat? If so, is it just eye candy or do you actually find it useful?
P.S. I did make one correct prediction in that post, though! In an aside towards the end of the post, I wrote:
The initial offering of Chat is just the first step in what will be a long series of upgrades to Facebook. I project that within a year, Facebook will find a way to not only provide a real-time social networking experience within Facebook, but will start to allow you to take that experience outside the walled garden of their website.
On May 9 — less than a month later — Facebook announced Facebook Connect, an authentication and identity-providing tool that lets users port their social graph to the wider web (we covered it here). So we’ll count that post as just a regular “FAIL”, not an “EPIC FAIL.” Mmkay?
Image courtesy of the FAIL blog.
Subscribe by feed
Subscribe by email
Follow on Facebook
I have to say, I completely agree. Facebook Chat is pointless. It feels voyeuristic to see when all these distant high school acquaintances are online, and the whole beauty of Facebook is that I DON’T have to talk to loose connections in any kind of interactive way….we can just mutually and casually stalk each other through profiles. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
I have used chat a couple of times, but only with one friend and is his fault… he started it. I think the problem with facebook is that it is more like a trading card game rather than a ‘social utility’. It is about turning yourself into a trading card and marketing yourself to various social subcultures as a kind of play. The roots of this (I suspect) are more narcissistic than social.
Having said that, please become my cats friend. He luvs cheezburgers and lulz: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1306625433
Am I the friend who’s fault it is that you used Facebook Chat? I don’t believe this – a nerd like you would have been thanking me for wanting to use the new feature.
I’m not sure I agree wholeheartedly with the above mudslinging. I think that FaceBook chat is a great idea, implemented surprisingly well (apart from some bugs with the ‘online friends’ lag. It will be interesting to see how it is intergrated with the new changes, but I don’t see it as being a problem. Although maybe it wasn’t the earth shattering change predicted in the earlier post!
@Jarrod: I think it’s a good idea in theory, sure. I’m just saying that I’ve never used it and haven’t really heard of anyone who has. In fact, all I see in the blogosphere these days about Facebook Chat is how people are porting it to desktop clients and outside of Facebook. What good is that?
No, Facebook Chat isn’t a problem. But it’s not that useful, either, IMHO.
what isn’t to like? I get the feeling you don’t want communication… if so… go watch television.
@Noah: On the contrary, I’m all for communication. I’m not saying Facebook was “wrong” to roll out Chat. It was probably inevitable. I’m just saying that it’s not as revolutionary as I or others thought it would be. It’s implemented as well as it can be, but from my straw polls and research it’s not getting wide use.
The larger problem here is that the future of Facebook’s value is not as a destination, but as social graph distributor for the wider web. Facebook (and Google, as a competitor) wants to be the repository and manager of our social graphs. Using Facebook Connect (or Google Friend Connect), external social sites will tap into and make use of that graph. Facebook (or Google) will help us own our centralized identity. They will still be destinations, obviously, but that won’t be as important in the future as serving as utilities. Facebook “features” like Chat or applications that only serve to draw people into the sites will lose what little importance they already have.
I love facebook chat. I use it all the time.
That said, I only use it b/c my work blocks gmail. Or else I would be gchatting instead.
BUT, facebook chat is the perfect tool for all those whose works block gmail, but have yet to figure out to block facebook (so…pretty much me, and no one else.)
PS. FB chat is bug city. It’s constantly logging me/the people I’m talking to out, mid-convo.
@Megan: Brutal! I bet I’d use it more too, if they blocked Gmail for me. My workplace is the opposite, blocking Facebook…
@JarrodFactor: Yes, it’s all your fault!
I tried to use Facebook Chat once. The result was the following post on my wall: “i think you just said that facebook chat hates me but i can’t tell because in fact it does and i can see you are trying to chat but i can’t read all of what it says all i can see is “chat hates you too.” well, i agree.”
Facebook doesn’t really lend itself well to real-time interaction. It’s more about furtive pokes and voyeurism for me.
I use Facebook chat frequently, usually to find other bored friends who are sitting at home and wanting to get out. It is indeed very buggy and very frustrating sometimes.
I know that many people “interact” through facebook and spend many hours constructing the perfect meta-identity. I, on the other, attempt to use Facebook as a real social utility. I go to events I hear about. I hang out with friends that I talk to on chat. If a new person adds me as a friend, I determine their stalker/rapist potential, and if it is low enough, make an effort to meet them.
Facebook is a tool. Tools can be used improperly. Use it the way it's meant to be used and you may find it rewarding.
I use Facebook chat frequently, usually to find other bored friends who are sitting at home and wanting to get out. It is indeed very buggy and very frustrating sometimes.
I know that many people “interact” through facebook and spend many hours constructing the perfect meta-identity. I, on the other, attempt to use Facebook as a real social utility. I go to events I hear about. I hang out with friends that I talk to on chat. If a new person adds me as a friend, I determine their stalker/rapist potential, and if it is low enough, make an effort to meet them.
Facebook is a tool. Tools can be used improperly. Use it the way it's meant to be used and you may find it rewarding.
Hello, blogger, your article very good, visits-our-site looking into321 forward to sharing your latest