Ampers & Dot

Facebook chat launched this week, giving users yet another way to communicate with people they do, and do not, really know. The little instant message feature is incredibly similar to Google Chat - in that it sits on top of a platform that you must already have open. In this case, Facebook is assuming that you have its website open at all times, and if you love buying people virtual drinks as much as I do, then you probably do have it open 24 hours a day.

I’ve expressed my confusion over the current state of Facebook before, but to reiterate: I don’t really understand Facebook in its current form. It’s trying to do too much too quickly, none of it with any real quality. So enter the chat tool. It is indeed yet another way for people to communicate. Maybe this is because I’m no longer a Facebook “power user”, but it just seems redundant and cumbersome. It’s yet another aspect of Facebook that bogs down the already cluttered social network.

That’s right: Facebook is cluttered. Admit it- the “feed” is annoying. Even if you set up the preferences and individually ignore some streams, there’s just too much work involved to manage it. And this is coming from a guy who reads 1,000+ items a day through RSS feeds and follows a good sized twitter stream…

And it turns out that I’m not the only one. Inside Facebook, a sight dedicated to discussing new developments within the social network, recently wrote about what people hate most about Facebook. Granted, this was targeted at Facebook applications, but it still ironically highlighted one gigantically flawed concept: people don’t like what’s going on at Facebook.

As the charts illustrate, there are many things people don’t like about Facebook apps, the least of which being the completely useless functionality. And with more and more clutter, invites, and indicators, Facebook is starting to look like a 15 year olds MySpace page. Needless to say- this is not going to be a successful “tool” for professionals.

Chat might actually be an ok feature- and honestly, if I were still a power user, I’d probably be psyched about the chat feature. But if Facebook is working to bridge its way into the business world it needs to realize that professionals are less keen to communicate in a place where they are being attacked by digital pirates or getting poked by someone they went to school with years ago… these are two very different worlds that will not naturally overlap.

But in the end- Facebook messaging might be really cool though- I mean, it’s going to be awesome to finally have a way to keep in touch with people, right? I’ve been waiting for a long time for technology to evolve to a point where I can communicate with other people…

So if you want to discuss this more with me then you can email me on one of my dozen email accounts, IM me on Google Chat, IM me on MSN chat, leave me a Facebook message, write on my profile wall, DM me on Twitter, Text me, call me at work or on my cell phone, message me through LinkedIn, Digg, or my MeetUp profile, or you can stop by my place and say hi. Or, of course, you can leave a comment below.

Just please don’t fax me. I don’t know how to use that thing.