WebProNews

Earlier this month, Facebook started rolling out a chat feature, and as of now, the thing seems to be fully open.  All of the social network's users can either talk to or ignore their friends at will.

 Facebook Chat

A small sort of box at the bottom right corner of the screen shows whether you're "offline" or "online."  Go online, and it'll add information about which friends are available.  Otherwise, options are extremely limited, but as far as holding basic conversations goes, Facebook Chat works fine.

Furthermore, Facebook Chat appears to be popular.  Wall mentions of "facebook chat" are occurring at about six times the highest level "beacon" ever reached, according to Facebook Lexicon. 

It remains to be seen what sort of actual following Facebook Chat will gather, of course; since it has only a fraction of the things traditional favorites like AIM offer, and not everyone stays on Facebook all day, a tidal shift might not occur.  But when you sign into the social network, Facebook Chat is "right there," so it's likely to get a lot of use.

Also, going forward, Stan Schroeder notes, "The Facebook folks are aware that features are scarce, and they promise more in the future."