Instant Messaging or in other words IM has been there on the Internet for many years and we are familiar with many chat programs available as standalone applications and web applets. Embedding chat functionality in to a web page is no alien to the world of Internet. When Facebook introduced chat feature for the first time, it received a massive response from the Facebook users as Facebook introduced the chat function as a simple, yet effective service.
When you are online in Facebook, you will notice that chat application is running on the Facebook taskbar at the right bottom of the page. Whenever your friends come to Facebook and available for chat, the number which indicates the number of online friends increases. Then you can simply open the chat application and start chatting with your friends.
Facebook chat works similar to any other chat program with more or less the same features such as emoticons etc. Although many features of Facebook chat functions are similar to other chat programs, there are significant differences in the implementation of the program. As an example, while many other chat accounts can be integrated in to a desktop chat client such as Pidgin, Facebook does not allow to access Facebook chat through a third party chat client.
You can control all related parameters for Facebook chat by simply clicking ‘Settings’ in the main chat window. If frequent messages from your friends grab a lot of attention from you, you can go offline, so they cannot see you or message you while you are busy.
