Gadgetory

comb your hair and try to look nice Facebook is doubling down on its person-to-person communication tools it starts with the way you see other online Facebook users everyone using a computer with a large or a wide screen will notice that Facebook has taken the list of who's online and moved it to a side park reinforcing the fact that Facebook is a place to connect with friends in real time not only does a side bar make Facebook feel more alive but there's a bit more you can do with your friends who are online with you in particular video chat Facebook has partnered with Skype and you can start a person-to-person video call from within a Facebook web page you do need to install a small executable on your PC or Mac but the key point is that you don't need a client app this all works within the browser it's fast and easy to get a video call going even if in early testing we did have some audio sync problems but if you want to do video chatting with friends or relatives who aren't on skype or a more technical service like Google Facebook video is just a great solution it is the easiest online video system to use and it also has the most users there are over 750 million people on Facebook there are a few issues though first there's no integration with Skype even though the technology comes from a Skype deal Skype users cannot connect to people on Facebook nor the other way this will be added later and could make Facebook and Skype together the most important real-time communications network on the planet but it's not here yet second video conversations are person-to-person only those of you waiting to see how Facebook will trump Google's new multi person video hangout feature in Google Plus keep waiting Facebook video is like Google Talk the person-to-person video feature not it's cool new hangout if you want to do video with a bunch of people all at once stick to Google and third there's no mobile access for the video feature it's another feature that's on the roadmap but at the moment mobile buddies can't play along Facebook also just added a group chat feature so you can huddle with a bunch of your friends at the same time in a real-time conversation other instant message platforms have had group chat for a while but again when you build a feature into Facebook all of a sudden everyone is on it at once the group chat feature is easy to use you just click the tool icon and a person-to-person chat to add additional people and Facebook will then open up a new multi-party chat window it can get a little hard to manage multiple chat conversations and Facebook at once though and with the multi-party chat that might become an issue for heavy users these new chat features are here now and they're here for everybody Facebook isn't rolling them out in dribs and drabs like that other service all Facebook users with cameras that is can now do video calling and everyone can participate in the group chats for CNET I'm ready