TECHCRUNCH
MICHAEL ARRINGTON
14 MARCH 2008
Facebook has been testing a new instant messaging service and will be launching it to the public soon, perhaps in the next week.
Our understanding is that the service will be built into user’s Facebook pages and allow them to web chat with their Facebook friends. We’ve also heard that, like Gtalk, it will be built on the Jabber open source platform, allowing users to add the service to many popular Instant messaging clients like Trillian (Windows) and Adium (Mac). I’d also expect web chat services like Meebo and eBuddy to add support for the service.
This spells trouble for a slew of instant messaging services that third parties have built on Facebook. Social.IM, for example, is one (funded
) startup we’ve written about a couple of times. (As is FriendVox from UK startup Techlightenment). Those applications are now basically dead.