[sobbybutter]

I don't know if others feel this way, but I don't find Google's UI outside of search very appealing. And that includes Gmail, which is where a good chunk of GTalk conversations happen. Couple that with email in general not being a pleasant experience for many, and you have a lot of people who don't want to hang out on GTalk. Also, keep in mind that chat was "magically" sprung upon Facebook users when it launched; they didn't have to sign up for yet another account and most of one's friends were already there. It was as simple as clicking on a person's name and typing.

[darklajid]

Thanks, very interesting.

Regarding GTalk / GMail: I just want to point out that GTalk features a decent mobile client (at least for Android, WebOS - no idea about the rest), a desktop client (at least for Windows?) and a widget that you can use not only in GMail (think google.com/ig for example). Or - connect with a decent 3rd party IM app on just about every OS.

[Wilduck]

Which are all fine if you're using GTalk. However, if all your friends use FB chat, you're probably not going to switch.

Back when I was in middle/high school, people I knew used AIM, not Yahoo Messenger, or MSN Messenger because that's where their friends were. The fact that they were essentially the same just served to enforce the point that AIM would have had to make a very major blunder for anyone to switch. The same holds for facebook chat.