All of us here at SM Notes take these “polls of convenience”  with some seriousness becasue – well you are telling us what is happening out there.  Our very first poll asked the age old question –> “Is Facebook Chat the best instant messaging service?” And wow – the results were very interesting.

First, 45% of the total said “Yes” that Facebook was the best IM chat client… and while this number is significant, the other number is equally as telling.  With 55% saying that something other than Facebook was better – it would seem to the casual reader that Facebook has to do some soul searching if they want to try and own the IM chat arena.  Comments ranged from “MySpace offers more functionality [ouch - that hurts just a little]” to “I don’t use any of these IM clients – that is so yesterday!” suggest that maybe IM chat is in need for a technologicial shot in the arm if it is to stay active as a communication vehicle.

More polls and analysis coming.  Vote – comment – counter-comment… that’s what SM Notes is looking from each of you.

Picture courtesy of gocomics.com (9-24-09)

Facebook Chat allows you to send instant messages to any of your Facebook friends who are online. Every Facebook user has the chat feature enabled by default, resulting in immediate access to all of your Facebook contacts.

Today, SM Notes asks you the elemental question: Do you think Facebook Chat will become the best instant messenger online?

Because of the simplicity and instant available of Facebook Chat, you may find Facebook Chat to be one of the fastest chat services available today. It is fast, and there is no need to log in and out of the chat. Simply going to the Facebook website can start the chat, and simply leaving the Facebook website results in the chat service logging you out. This way, you can do anything on Facebook, go from page to page, and your Facebook chat window maintains a list of all your chats and contacts on each page.

Following are some random benefits and drawbacks of Facebook Chat that affect you directly.

Benefits of Facebook Chat:

1. All within your browser
2. Nothing extra to install
3. All online contacts available to chat with
4. Video chat coming soon
5. Voice chat coming soon
6. Portability. Because of the Facebook API, many external applications, like Pidgin, can integrate Facebook chat, allowing you to skip the browser altogether.
7. Almost no spam from non-contacts. Because only your existing Facebook friends can chat with you, anyone who is not your Facebook contact will not be able to chat with you unless you add them as a friend first.

Drawbacks of Facebook Chat:

1. No ability to transfer files to contacts
2. No direct archival of messages
3. Minimal privacy options.
4. Browser dependent. Depending on the browser means that you cannot chat on devices like the phone easily.
5. Only way to add contacts is to add Facebook users. Non-facebook users cannot be chatted with yet.

Do you think Facebook Chat is going to be the best instant messenger?

Whether or not Facebook Chat starts affecting the specific operating system platformed instant messengers, there is one thing that will remain true for a while: Facebook Chat will allow Facebook users to interact more with each other.

Have you used Facebook Chat? Do you think it has potential?

Let us know what you think in the comments below.