Social.im: The Instant Messaging Service For Facebook Junkies

If you don’t mind installing one more instant messaging client on your computer, and you happen to be a heavy Facebook user, check out social.im. This isn’t yet another instant messaging application that resides on Facebook; rather, it’s a normal IM client that grabs all of your Facebook friends via the Facebook API and brings them into Social.im.

It’s only available for Windows machines now, with a Mac version promised soon. We actually know next to nothing about the company, other than Hank Barry is an investor – he sent out a Facebook message this evening announcing it. The site itself has almost no information (and, yeah, you’re sharing your Facebook credentials with them to use it).

I’ve tested it on a Windows machine, but without any friends who’ve also downloaded the client it isn’t much use. If you’re one of my Facebook friends, try installing it and I’ll see if you pop up. For now, friends are listed but now showing online. And if you aren’t a friend yet, please add me.

The client also shows other basic information about facebook – new wall posts, messages, pokes, friend requests and photos tagged with your name.

The application is also a little unstable. It crashed a few minutes after opening. But hey, testing alpha software is always a little dangerous. That’s just how I roll – on the edge.