Oh the good ole days of going on to someones profile and clicking chat to speak with them, then having to download a client to chat with them, are soon to be over.  MySpace updates their chat system to a Facebook esque look and feel. Still a little on the buggy side (Most of my friends are not showing up on the list even though they are online) it comes rolling out.

 

Starting today, users across the social networking site in English speaking countries (Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the US) will see a prominent bright blue bar across the bottom portion of their screens. On the right side of that bar resides MySpaceIM, the service’s instant messaging client.

It was a bit on the odd side having the stand-alone client.  I would assume you would want to keep your users as integrated to the site as possible.  This is a one of the major changes MySpace has done in a while and I'm sure their new COO Mike Jones might have something to do with this.

Similar to the Facebook IM, you’ll be able to customize who can see you are online and who cannot.  As well as all the other functions such as; block certain users, popping out IM into its own window.

 

The MySpace Chat bar will be rolling out to other countries ove the next few months.  If you want to learn more about the Chat Bar go here