There is a lot of buzz going around this evening about a new Facebook IM client that is apparently going into beta this Friday. While it’s important to note that this does not appear to be an official Facebook IM application, it’s noteworthy because, well, it’s on the Facebook platform, but also because it will run completely within Facebook and not require a downloadable client. This means that in theory you could simply login to Facebook to see which of your friends are online and initiate a conversation.
MySpace launched its own IM client last year and we haven’t heard much about since, so we’ll see if a web-based IM tool on Facebook does better. If it does, it would be a likely acquisition target for Facebook, unless they’re already working on their own.
As for this Facebook IM app, it will apparently be named Friendvox. Blognation has some preliminary screen shots.
