I'm not an avid Facebook user, but I have been checking it every now and then for the promised chat application, and as of today it seems to finally be available for everyone. And, although I have certain reservations about yet another web based chat application, I must say I love it.

The chat is integrated into Facebook well - all of its components are displayed in a minibar that's always at the bottom of your screen. It's practical, yet unobtrusive. My Facebook friends seem to have embraced it really well, since most of them have started chatting like crazy right away. The whole thing simply makes sense; you're there to communicate with your friends anyway, so chat is the logical extension to Facebook's functionality.

Options and features wise, Facebook chat doesn't really offer all that much; the settings tab hides exactly four options: Show Mini-Feed Stories in Chat, Play Sound for New Messages, Keep Online Friends Open, and Show Only Names in Online Friends. The chat history is remembered even after you close the chat, and even after you log out and log back in. It would be nice if you could extract the entire log and save it somewhere as backup, though. I'd also like to see the standard, one click status updates: I'm busy, I'm AFK, etc. The Facebook folks are aware that features are scarce, and they promise more in the future.

All in all, Facebook chat is a great addition to the service. To paraphrase one of our commenters, Facebook chat maybe won't replace your other chat applications, but it'll do just fine for chatting with people who you usually don't chat with.