Facebook chat.. Will MSN have competition?

Facebook had announced about a in-built chat for a couple of weeks officially on their blog. About 3 days it appeared on my home page but since it wasn’t a feature for most of my friends I couldn’t really utilize it.

Today morning I used it to chat with my friend Reagan the copy editor at the Bombay Times and the chat feature has a host of problems from what I noticed.

For starters unlike chat on Gmail the app took time sending messages to the other user. Most times the chat bar would disspear showing me an error message. Felt wierd as my wireless internet connection at home is stable and I didnt notice any disturbance on the P2P app.

So will this new feature by Facebook take away the steam from MSN (Windows Live) or Gtalk or even Yahoo messenger for that matter? I seriously dont think so. Why do I say that?

Chat messages on Gtalk and Windows Messenger are saved. Features most chat users prefer having so they can go back to check what they said a few weeks back when they had one too many drinks.

Facebook doesn’t incorporate features like calling and or file transfers.

Chat on Facebook is a cumbersome feature with small icons and even smaller fonts.

Will I start chatting with my friends on facebook rather than MSN or Gtalk ( my chat app of choice). Atleast in the near future the answer would be a bold NO.

I hope Facebook cleans up its act and gets some improvements into facebook chat.