Sunday morning marked the launch of Facebook’s chat system. It was only rolled out to a few networks though. Those networks included Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, Berkeley, Brown, Dartmouth and MIT. If you wanted to be one of the early users of the system, you must have attended one of those universities. An interesting choice for a company which opened up to all networks over a year ago.
This is the same way that Facebook was initially rolled out to universities. Users were only allowed to register if their university had been added as a network. A Harvard Crimson article was critical of the application, quoting people who were generally unimpressed with the feature.
For the rest of us mere mortals we will have to wait until the chat system is rolled out to other networks. It may not be immediate and Facebook did not comment on any possible timeframe. It will be interesting to see how soon other networks can access the new feature. Have you been able to use the new chat functionality on Facebook?
I haven't seen it and I'm part of the WVU, US Army and Pittsburgh networks.
Comment by Mike Belgrove — April 8, 2008 @ 5:15 am
I should think it was only rolled out to a select number of networks to test it's affect on the server load.Its a feature that is going to be used a hell of a lot as soon as it is released so they need to gauge what sort of resources its going to need.I guess they figured releasing to the original universities was a nice way of selecting who got first access in this test environment.
Comment by Craig Bovis — April 8, 2008 @ 5:27 am
@Craig , definitely understandable …
Comment by Nick O'Neill — April 8, 2008 @ 5:47 am
I don't think it'll be as successful as Gmail chat. It feels strange to leave it on hours at a time, as you would with Gmail chat. It feels like you're somehow sending the message to your friends that you've got nothing better to do with your time then to sit around on Facebook all day. I've always viewed Facebook as a guilty pleasure that everyone does. However, I don't feel comfortable advertising how much a participate in this guilty pleasure to everyone, or even increasing the amount of time spent on it.
Comment by Anon — April 8, 2008 @ 5:59 am
I should think it was only rolled out to a select number of networks to test it's affect on the server load.
Its a feature that is going to be used a hell of a lot as soon as it is released so they need to gauge what sort of resources its going to need.
I guess they figured releasing to the original universities was a nice way of selecting who got first access in this test environment.
Comment by Craig Bovis — April 8, 2008 @ 6:27 am
I don't think it'll be as successful as Gmail chat.
It feels strange to leave it on hours at a time, as you would with Gmail chat. It feels like you're somehow sending the message to your friends that you've got nothing better to do with your time then to sit around on Facebook all day.
I've always viewed Facebook as a guilty pleasure that everyone does. However, I don't feel comfortable advertising how much a participate in this guilty pleasure to everyone, or even increasing the amount of time spent on it.
Comment by Anon — April 8, 2008 @ 6:59 am
"Elitist" is kind of harsh. They're running a business, not a national park. For big new products like chat, I'd much rather they rabbit-test the stuff on unsuspecting college students before unleashing it on the site at large.
Comment by Jeffrey — April 8, 2008 @ 7:48 am
Middlebury was also in that list.
Comment by Dave Ambrose — April 8, 2008 @ 8:31 am
That Crimson article was lame. They quoted people who don't even use chat programs.
Comment by Raymond Rouf — April 8, 2008 @ 9:18 am
I haven’t seen it and I’m part of the WVU, US Army and Pittsburgh networks.
Comment by Mike Belgrove — April 8, 2008 @ 9:15 am
@Craig , definitely understandable …
Comment by Nick O'Neill — April 8, 2008 @ 9:47 am
Nick – you didn't go to Harvard or one of those "Elitist" schools? How come?
Comment by boodalicious — April 8, 2008 @ 11:38 am
“Elitist” is kind of harsh. They’re running a business, not a national park. For big new products like chat, I’d much rather they rabbit-test the stuff on unsuspecting college students before unleashing it on the site at large.
Comment by Jeffrey — April 8, 2008 @ 10:48 am
Middlebury was also in that list.
Comment by Dave Ambrose — April 8, 2008 @ 11:31 am
That Crimson article was lame. They quoted people who don’t even use chat programs.
Comment by Raymond Rouf — April 8, 2008 @ 12:18 pm
@Craig – I totally agree – test to friendly first adopters and then fix – then roll out to the masses.
I am intrigued to figure out what revenue model they might try to put in with this chat feature. Perhaps sponsored chat windows? Integration with their flyer program? Who knows – should be interesting.
Cheers – Eric
Comment by Eric Dewhirst — April 8, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
@Craig – I totally agree – test to friendly first adopters and then fix – then roll out to the masses.
I am intrigued to figure out what revenue model they might try to put in with this chat feature. Perhaps sponsored chat windows? Integration with their flyer program? Who knows – should be interesting.
Cheers – Eric
Comment by Eric Dewhirst — April 8, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
@boodalicious that's a very good question … I could give you the real answer or just tell you that I was too elite for the elitists … i prefer to keep it at that
Is your name really boodalicious btw?
Comment by Nick O'Neill — April 8, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
Nick – you didn’t go to Harvard or one of those “Elitist” schools? How come?
Comment by boodalicious — April 8, 2008 @ 2:38 pm
@boodalicious that’s a very good question … I could give you the real answer or just tell you that I was too elite for the elitists … i prefer to keep it at that
Is your name really boodalicious btw?
Comment by Nick O'Neill — April 8, 2008 @ 5:57 pm
Delaware got it today. It looks terrible across the bottom and is more annoying than anything else. I wish it would go away.
Comment by Guest — April 9, 2008 @ 7:41 am
Yale was also included. Maybe they're mimicking the original Facebook –open only to Ivy League and similar? For a short time.
Comment by Rosario Doriott — April 9, 2008 @ 11:22 am
Delaware got it today. It looks terrible across the bottom and is more annoying than anything else. I wish it would go away.
Comment by Guest — April 9, 2008 @ 10:41 am
It's seems unnecessary to me. Just like Flickr adding video.
Comment by mojaam — April 9, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
Yale was also included. Maybe they’re mimicking the original Facebook –open only to Ivy League and similar? For a short time.
Comment by Rosario Doriott — April 9, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
It’s seems unnecessary to me. Just like Flickr adding video.
Comment by mojaam — April 9, 2008 @ 6:22 pm
Wisconsin got it on Sunday as well…
Comment by Greg Tracy — April 10, 2008 @ 9:34 am
Wisconsin got it on Sunday as well…
Comment by Greg Tracy — April 10, 2008 @ 1:34 pm