Facebook Plunges Again
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Facebook Chat gets XMPP, catches up with AIM, Google Talk and MSN
Facebook Chat has been a bit slow to catch on. Since it's been relegated to being opened from the web in a Facebook Tab, it hasn't been able to compete with chat services that have their own dedicated clients, like AIM, MSN and Yahoo. Although some third-party apps - like Adium - have made the extra effort to support Facebook Chat, it's not widespread. That's about to change, though, when Facebook adopts XMPP and becomes compatible with tons of existing chat apps. XMPP is most famous as the protocol behind Google Talk. That means any chat program that currently includes Google Talk will be able to include Facebook Chat too. Facebook, like Google, is starting out in the chat market with the advantage of huge pre-existing contact lists - for Google, it was your Gmail contacts, and for Facebook it's, well, Facebook. If you've ever wished you could just automatically add all of your Facebook buddies to your favorite IM program, you're in for a treat.
[via GigaOM]
Comments
4
Subscribe to commentsDrew GreenNov 6th 2009 9:26AM
Awesome. I just had to hack Empathy the other day to support FB chat. It'll be nice having native support.
RayNov 6th 2009 9:43AM
Digsby has supported Facebook chat for months.
www.digsby.com
JoshNov 6th 2009 10:40AM
As has any Pidgin client. But they are third party plugins. Facebook has been unusable in Adium for a few weeks now due to Facebook changing their protocol slightly and causing continuous CAPTCHA errors. With them using an official, open protocol, this is unlikely to happen. This should also open up third party apps to more Facebook features than is currently available because Facebook will actually support these third party apps, which they do not currently do.
mahNov 6th 2009 12:35PM
pidgin has a facebook plugin also. come to think of it, is there an IM client that does multiprotocol (XMPP included) that doesn't do facebook chat?