Some might call me hyper-critical of the social “utility” de jour, Facebook. I think what it amounts to is that some of the stronger voices in tech punditry seem to believe Facebook is something that it was never designed to be, specifically, a tool for serious business communication. Today, amidst news of Facebook’s $15 Billion valuation courtesy of Microsoft and their legal woes courtesy of New York State I have found a reason that it is a very good day to be Mark Zuckerburg.

The Facebook team are developing an IM client to premiere on Friday.

FriendVox

Here is the upshot.

Facebook’s new client doesn’t require downloads, doesn’t require signups and all of your friends can use it right out of the box. In a single sweep, Mark has managed to give college students a real reason to keep using his product after graduation.

Of course, there are as many instant messaging services as there are companies to create them, but where Facebook has the advantage is that there are absolutely no barriers to entry for the demographic that most commonly uses messaging systems (High School and College students). Instead of having to open up an external client like AIM, bored students can wile away the hours while still being able to surf Facebook profiles.

GTalk has had a hard time picking up traction among college students for just this reason. It requires that you have a Gmail account and there are plenty of students who don’t care enough to set one up, instead relying exclusively on their campus email accounts. The same accounts, if you’re following me, that they signed up for Facebook with.

This is the first time in quite a while that Facebook’s developers have turned away from their “King of All Social Media” stance and instead decided to return to what made them popular in the first place, catering to a generation that has grown to see Instant messaging as one of their primary means of communication.

Web 2.0 Roundup

Do I think this will draw a huge surge in Facebook registration? No. That really does not matter, growth has never really been their problem. I see this move at yet another means of keeping people on the site for longer. If you have ever found yourself in a three hour AIM conversation about the weather you’ll know that this increase in usage could be significant.

Now, if they could only find a way to get a click thru rate for their advertising that wasn’t so painfully low.

UPDATE: This ones important. As it turns out FriendVox is actually being created by a third party, namely, Ankur Shah of Techlightenment. The rest of the analysis remains accurate, but it is important to note that this is a third party application after all. I guess I jumped the gun congratulating Facebook on finally catering to their demographic.

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