Stephen Chinnadorai

According to TechCrunch, Facebook is to launch an IM service of its own, possibly as soon as next week. I’ve thought up three reasons why Facebook’s IM won’t work:

Not innovative

I can’t go ahead and say it’s not innovative without seeing or using it, but given from what Facebook has done in the past, I can see this just being a plain old web-based IM, branded with the Facebook logo.

Jabber

Jabber is a great thing for users, but what about Facebook themselves? Surely advertising revenue is lost through people using other IM clients than their own.

Web-based IM hasn’t taken off

And it probably never will - not until the semantic web (a.k.a. “Web 3.0″). It’s just something about desktop applications that makes them feel more responsive, reliable and generally better than web-based ones. I like to be signed on to MSN, AIM, Yahoo and Google Talk for all the time I’m using my computer. I don’t think anyone wants to be logged on to a website all day. Saying that, you do have the option to use something like Adium through the Jabber platform.

Another point about the whole web-based thing - you won’t get rich, visual experiences on a website. Webcam conversations, audio conversations can be done through websites - but not that well - nothing like Skype.

I know a lot of people are now excited about Facebook’s IM, but I still think the big guys (MSN and AIM) are there to stay for quite some time. Just because it’s branded “Facebook” doesn’t mean it’s good.