So here is the April update of the Technology world seen though the eyes of Lushable editors. The first story we wrote about was the much talked about sale of domain name pizza.com which was sold bfor $2.6million. We wrote about the now launched Facebook chat whilst it was in the pre-launch phase. I have to say, the Facebook chat system is superb, one of the best additions to social networking website Facebook.com. I think its great that you can see all your Facebook friends online and chat to them when there online, I am now visiting Facebook more, sometimes just to see who is online and available to chat if I’m bored online. Jose wrote a more in depth review about the service in the post titled Facebook chat hands-on. Jose also wrote about the launch of Google’s app engine and a more in depth look into the Google app engine.

Now in May and now neerly 6 whole months since Lushable Technology and web 2.0 start up news launched we have retreated to our old look, the old theme for the blog, we’re still planning to launch more versions of the site and hire more editors.

Facebook chat is already in use and in a deployment cycle. that leaves room to ask if previous Facebook chat and im solutions shoud just give up or if that dont even matters because they are as good as dead already?.

 What Facebook IM solutions?

Social.im

Social.im only goal was to provide the best Facebook IM client possible. such ambition was received with lot of free hype from large blogs and quite a pampering welcome by lots of Facebook users interested in speeding up the social interaction inside Facebook.

So far the client has shown to be good but nothing spectacular. there were rumors of it getting acquired to be integrated into the team working on the offical Facebook Chat.

While denied by Social.Im. the tone used to deny and some “playing dumb” innuendos could mean they did got acquired. something that should get cleared when facebook chat finally launches.

If they did not got acquired, then i must say it is pretty much game over for them, social.im never got pass Alpha, only had one focus. but that don`t means they could transform it into something else given the linage of the founders and the investors backing up social.im. same reason to believe they got acquired.

Social.im

Imo.Im

A small meebo competitor who provides a light wieight web IM client that reminds of the old Ebuddy and that now counts with a also light weight .net based desktop version.

They released a app to talk using imo.im but is pretty sure they will just scrape it and wait for a way to tap into the official chat and add support later.

The outcome for them cannot be estimated since they are two small of a competitor to have a crash and they could go any direction.

Imo.Im

Mosoto

Mosoto is another Meebo competitor with a twist, it also serves as social webtop. something that could be compared to Wixi. so they are part Wixi and part Meebo.

They do provide a Facebook IM solution but their focus is not just that and have gone for the social webtop angle. they provide a music player that can tap into box.net to serve your music. that integration also allows for file sharing and video sharing.

The product is dissapointing, it got a so-so chat experience and a so-so webtop experience. their mixed nature gets in the way and shows as the greatest fault because you cannot get a excelent expirience in either focus of the service.

The worst is that Mosoto continues to be a alpha product and web only. something that is not enough to compell anyone to exchange Meebo for Mosoto. much less because it has not properly launched.

The outcome is bleak, they should change or re-think their product.

Mosoto

Babuki

Babuki is the latest application to offer Facebook IM support but it also a full Desktop/Web(Flex)/FB8 App im client. so you can use it in 3 ways and in Mac or PC thanks to Adobe AIR. Babuki offers a Adobe AIR client that is very polished. all shows the greatest IM and Social Chat solutions, because it offers MySpace IM chat, a LiveJournal IM chat, a Facebook Chat and even supports their direct competition by offering Social.Im support. Something that should be seen as incredible.

And that is not all, they also offer two other advanced facebook Apps to complement their service and if you use Babuki, you can also send free sms to your contacts if supported.

Babuki, unlike the other services don`t goes for the “me too” route and improves over what meebo has, meebo up to this day don`t has a desktop client yet, much less one as good as the one shown by Babuki.

The outcome to Babuki should be good Facebook chat or not because of their wide offerings and thanks that they don`t depend all on Facebook.

I choose Babuki as the only compelling IM solution offering a better facebook chat than facebook own solution and one that can survive while they find a way to integrate the FB chat into Babuki.

Babuki

Those are the choices if you still don`t have Facebook chat and you find yourself impacient.

The Facebook chat roll out is happening faster than anticipated spreading over networks, the first networkk to have Facebook chat supported was of course Mark Zuckerberg old college. that little university called Hardvard, from there, the facebook chat followed activation in the main Universites netowrks, like standford, yale, princeston and so on. this kind of path of deployment reveal a interesting doubt. Does Facebook got a logged path on how it grew from zero and when deploying it follows the same route but in a way faster movement?. given the reports on how the Facebook chat activated, the answer may be yes.

CNET web 2.0 focused blog, webware got a Hands-On post explaining briefly what could be read in pieces all around and provides a good way to undertand how it works.

I certainly must Applaud the way the integrated the chat by using the status bar as the way to dock the chat window dialogue, a simple but efective way to riff but put their on spin on what can be experienced with Google Gmail Gchat. it also pop ups a window to follow the conversation if what you are interested is talking. the window display it is indeed the standar fare of a chat board  mixed with a IM client.

At this rate of deployment, Facebook Chat should be completely released by mid-april if fast or by the end of the month if they decide to go slow. more details as they come.

Mark Hendrickson at TechCrunch wrote about the Facebook chat pre launch beta.

The guys over at Inside Facebook posted an in depth review. I think this will be a lot better than the Myspace IM but….. I’m sure there will be another IM available pretty soon which will give Facebook IM a run for its money very soon, its nothing that cant be improved on by other developers although Facebook has a major advantage with the amount of members it has. The only reason why I wont use it is because of the privacy concerns surrounding Facebook, reading about what ValleyWag wrote about the possibility of Facebook employees reading users message inbox’s for fun. I wouldn’t want to have IM conversations with anyone and to publish the info to some dude sat in an office in Silicon Valley reading everything I wrote whilst enjoying the wonderful Californian sunshine whilst it rains, hails and snows here in Glasgow.