As you are aware, a new instant-messaging ‘chat’ service is soon to be added to one of the most popular social networking sites, Facebook. The networking major would be launching the service in two weeks time. Let’s check out the features of the ‘chat service.

• It would not be needed for users to download any new, additional software or even install a program on their computer.
• Instead, the instant-messaging ‘chat’ service will be accessed simply via the browser window whenever a Facebook user is logged on to the networking site.
• Facebook Chat is going to be less sophisticated than most other prevalent instant-messaging services.
• Although it will let users to get engage in multiple chats in one go, it won’t carry a group chat feature wherein more than two members engage in the same chat session.
• Conversations in Facebook Chat service will be automatically stored or archived for three months. After 90 days, the system will delete the archives.
• Users can opt to purge their respective chat histories as & when they like.

Although the networking site won’t be making the code used for building its chat feature available to outside developers, it might be working on methods for integrating it into other messaging software.