| Somewhat related to point 7: Integrate Circles with Google Chat, and allow users to set different visibility per Circle. As buggy as Facebook Chat is, this feature exponentially increases the value proposition for me. (You can leave certain Friend Lists offline, while having others online.) It's 2011 and even companies like Skype still haven't implemented this, despite it being requested repeatedly by users. You can't honestly expect users to have the same 'Available', 'Busy', or 'Invisible' status for a chat list that could contain hundreds of people ranging from friends and family to classmates, business contacts, acquaintances, etc. When working on a project, I need to appear 'Available' to everybody else involved, while leaving other contact groups offline so as not to be contacted about trivial matters that don't require an immediate response. Other people I've discussed this with have said things like not wishing to be 'Available' to work colleagues outside of work hours. The list is endless, and any company that takes Instant Messaging seriously needs this. IM isn't going anywhere. |