Early Opinions of Facebook Chat
Disclaimer: The following post contains three very embarrassing – but entirely true – confessions by the writer. Please see them simply as attempts to prove his point and try to forget them after reading the post and understanding the point.
Facebook launched their chat feature last week and many are calling the creation another brilliant, inevitable step toward Facebook becoming the world’s next operating system. But while it was certainly inevitable and will probably, like most other Facebook creations (except for the Beacon of course) be a resounding success, I think this one is going to take a little more time than some of the other groundbreaking features they’ve recently introduced. Even more time than the initially hated, but now addictive News Feed – the goat cheese of new Facebook features.
Here’s why I think Facebook Chat isn’t such an easy sell:
I’m on Facebook all day long (embarrassing confession #1). This is not hyperbole, it is fact. If at any point in the day you were to look at my open Firefox browser you would without fail always see a Facebook tab. Even if it is just one of five running tabs, Facebook is always there. And yeah, I have justification since Ignighter is a Facebook application and I have to “do work” within Facebook, but trust me, it’s just a very convenient excuse.
Occasionally I just leave it open to my Homepage, but more often than not it’s open to poolside photos of the recent Fire Island weekend getaway of one of my Facebook friends that I probably don’t even know that well (embarrassing confession #2). What we do on Facebook, all the stalking, and gawking, and voyeurism (well that’s what I do at least) is really humiliating. Whether we want to admit it or not, Facebook is a guilty pleasure.
And I think this really cuts to heart of why I have 1,307 Facebook friends (EXTREMELY embarrassing confession #3) and I’ve yet to see more than 54 “online” at one time. You can be on Facebook and not publicly declare yourself “online”. And while I’m not sure if everybody else keeps Facebook up all day like I do, I’ve got to believe that more than 4% of my friends are on at any given time. If they are on, but just too ashamed to promote it all day, then Facebook chat is going to face quite an uphill climb moving forward. And if it’s true that only 4% of my friends are online at any given time (and I find this unlikely), then Facebook as an operating system has an even steeper climb ahead.
What do you think?
Give it time Adam. If Facebook has 25m users in the US and 4% of them are using Fb chat at any time, that’s 1m users online at any given time in the first month. Not bad .. especially considering it doesn’t automatically sign you in like most chat applications.
ashish! how dare you dissent…i challenge you to a duel!
Ashish I agree that 1M users on chat wouldn’t be bad, especially, like you said, if they achieve that in their first month of being live.
But when you compare it to how engaged Facebook users are otherwise, 4% becomes a very low figure. More than 50% of Facebook’s almost 70M users visit the site every single day.
In addition, 1M active users looks even weaker when you compare it to the engagement of some of Facebook’s top applications like FunWall and TopFriends, which get more than double 1M on a daily basis.
Two things Adam. First, the 1m reflected only US visitors (4% of 25m). Globally, that would be 2.8m, comparable or above those top apps you mentioned. Second, the 4% (obv extremely unscientific 4%) is 4% AT ANY GIVEN TIME. The figure is likely to be much, much higher in terms of the sum of all users for the entire day of active users. So the total engagement of chat must be even higher than 4% across the day, easily surpassing the top third party Facebook apps.
Regardless, I agree that the chat does have some time to go. A desktop application will be necessary and will likely cause use to increase significantly (at least for yours truly).
for now, i gotta agree with adam. aside from the 1,307 friends thing (shameless!), the other 2 embarassments are ones we all share. we have this love-hate relationship with facebook– in that we love it, but would hate for anyone else to see just how much we love it. i’ve occasionally opened the facebook chat box, but so few people are on, i think i better get off it really quickly.
also, let’s face it. between gchat and aim, i feel covered. gchat is like my “a-list” while aim covers everyone else who i may need to get in immediate touch with at some point, but have no desire to talk to on a regular basis. as for the randoms who are currently online when i open that chat box…they can stay in facebookland where they belong. in other words, it’s a time to stalk, not to talk.
but who knows? in 3 months i may be eating my words…i used to hate the news-feed…and goat cheese too.
Thanks JM!
I don’t know Adam – the difficulties can just as easily be seen as strengths that will make Facebook chat flourish.
I will also admit that I am on Facebook all day long – and I don’t even have a valid “work” excuse to go along with it. If users are constantly plugged into the Facebook network, there is the potential that it will become a one-stop shop for your IM needs. No more running between AIM and Gchat to track everyone in your network down!
The voyeurism of which you speak could also help to fuel the phenomenon. I often find myself sending links to my friends of noteworthy articles or photos, and Facebook itself provides plenty of these “conversation starters” to its users.
In my opinion the biggest problem with Facebook chat right now is that you can only be online or offline – the inability to block certain contacts that Gchat provides is probably causing many of your 1,307 friends to opt for “offline” status in order to avoid chatting it up ad infinitum with that random person who poked them back in 2005. Being able to selectively set your availability on chat to a certain group of your friends is key, in my opinion, to making this a better chat experience.
So I guess since Adam is making confessions I’ll make some too. I am always signed into gchat as “invisible.” While I’m reading my email or just working, I don’t really want to be disturbed by anyone, but I also don’t want to be totally signed out all together. If I see someone sign on, I can say hi, but they can’t initiate talk with me. It’s heavenly.
And if facebook had that option I’d be all about it too! I love stalking, and feel like chatting would interrupt my blissful voyeurism. Sometimes as I browse through peoples’ pics, I imagine myself at those parties, or political rallies, or I wonder if I had dated my ex longer if that would be me on that Jamaican love cruise. Who wants to chat with random high school peeps amidst vivid daydreaming? However, if I could sign in and remain invisible, it would simply up the stalking excitement. I would be able to see you’re online, look at all your pictures, and decide to say hi to you if I wanted.
If everyone started signing on as invisible, though, it would ruin the whole thing. It would be the equivalent of fbook chatting not existing at all. Which is kinda how I liked it anyway!
Here’s a tangent that came out of a gchat conversation about Facebook chat that I had with Nikki after she posted that comment:
Nikki: i guess i hate the idea of fbook chat. do you know what Facebook feature i do want though?
Adam: whats that?
Nikki: i want to know who’s viewed my page
Adam: Some dating sites do that
OKcupid.com for example
BUT you to give if u want to get
Nikki: right like then other people could see when i stalk them
Adam: yeah exactly. so u have to choose the option that allows other people to see that you’ve checked them out
OR u could make yourself totally invisible, but u don’t get to see who is checking u out.
it’s a good equitable system.
Nikki: hahahahha agreed
it’s not offensive to look though
you’re not chatting, not messaging
or writing on walls
just looking
and it’s not public info
just the person who’s profile it is would know,
not everyone
Adam: right
the only thing that gets weird is if u check the same person’s profile like a number of times hahaha
Nikki: hahahahha so true
Adam: there are people that i don’t even know that well but i check their profile all the time because they fascinate me.
they’d prob be so weirded out if they knew
Nikki: yeah totes hahahha
don’t you want to know who you’re that person for though?
Adam: hahaha yes. In fact, maybe I’m that person to that exact person!
Nikki: HAHHAHAHHAHA
Adam: and maybe we’re constantly checking each other out shamefully
Nikki: amazing
facebook chat buddy lists that let you control who can talk to you and see you’re online would definitely be a good place to start. but for those of us without good excuses to be on fbook while we work, it remains the guiltiest of guilty pleasures- the window you race to minimize when someone walks by. i don’t think i’d feel comfortable leaving it open to chat during the day. now, i’m sure there are offices where a similar shame would apply to gmail. luckily, mine isn’t one of them.