So one day I just logged on to Facebook as usual, and there it was: a bar across the bottom of the page proclaiming the birth of Facebook Chat. A click on a button on it, and up pops a list of all my Facebook friends who are currently online, offering me the opportunity for online chat with them just from another click.

At a time when every online community or system there is seems to be offering a chat facility, I guess it’s hardly surprising that Facebook is following suit.

And in fact I think Facebook is in many ways ideally suited to making the most of chat. One of the main reasons I don’t use chat more often is that I don’t have very many of my friends on other chat systems (maybe this is just me because I don’t really know how to get more on to them), and I think a limited number of friends are indeed on those systems.

But like most Facebook users I have hundreds of ‘friends’ already on it. And the fact that chat is properly integrated into Facebook means it’s very easy to contact them on it – or at least those who are willing to be contacted, as there is the option to mark yourself as ‘offline’.

As I’ve outlined before, I think one of the best uses of Facebook is for keeping slightly better in touch with people I was previously only very vaguely in contact with, or used to know in the past – and the chance occasionally to ‘chat’ with them is a natural extension of the Facebook status update to do that.

And it all fits very well with the general casual ethos of Facebook – the thought of the much more work-focussed LinkedIn offering the same facility to chat (even if their technology was up to it, which doesn’t seem very likely yet) is mildly terrifying!

In other Facebook news, Mark Pack at Lib Dem Voice has highlighted another use of Facebook by politicians, which may (thankfully) not apply in the UK, but is quite sobering.