This week I came across an interesting little app called Mosoto. Mosoto is an instant messager for Facebook — you are able to sign on via Facebook and then see who within your network is online and chat with them. There are lots of other features added on such as file sharing and even video conferencing! I won’t go into the breadth of features since there is a really nice screencast which does a good job of explaining how it works. What I do want to discuss is the impact this will have on the major messaging networks such as MSN, AIM et al.

Is your social network more important than your messaging buddies? There has been little to challenge the dominance of the big IM networks over the years but services like Mosoto are going to do a pretty good job. Mosoto was only possible due to the release of the Facebook API and with the possibility of other social networks creating APIs we could see other sites such as hi5 and Bebo added to the mix. On the other hand, MySpace’s instant messaging client hasn’t done much to dent the popularity of the established IM services; but then again, there is a difference. MySpace created their own proprietary IM client whilst Facebook is relying on independent developers to use their API to create such services. As a result I think that features built around Facebook will be far more compelling since quality will rise out of competition between developers trying to create the best new services.

If Mosoto and others succeed in making instant messaging mainstream on your social network, the likes of MSN, AIM and Yahoo Messenger should wonder where their futures lie.