by Olha Romaniuk

Created on: December 11, 2011   Last Updated: December 17, 2011

The Facebook sidebar is an easy to use tool that allows one to have friend contacts at the tips of the fingertips. It lets one see right away which friends are online and available to talk and facilitates instant conversation, all with a minimal number of clicks. The Facebook sidebar is small enough so that it is not invasive of the screen, when one is simply looking at a news feed or updating his or her profile. However, it is always present on the screen and is always easy to find, even when it is minimized.

The sidebar shows a list of friends that are available to chat by displaying a green circle next to their name. Those friends that are currently not online have no icon next to their name, indicating that they are not available for a chat. A gray moon appears next to a friend's name who is online but is currently idle. Alternatively, if one does not want to be visible on chat, there is an option to uncheck, in the Options menu, the chat availability option. In this case, one can still remain on Facebook, without having their name displayed as available to chat.

Chat availability can also be customized, so that a person can appear to be only to some friends, but not to others. After grouping friends into separate groups, an option to "limit availability" can be checked by clicking the cog icon in the lower right corner. A Facebook user can choose from two options: “Make me unavailable to:” or “Only make me available to:”. After that, by clicking different friends lists, chat availability can be completely customized to one's desired privacy level.

To contact a friend, it is as simple as expanding the chat window to view all of the friends that are currently online. Then, by click on a friend's name, a small window pops up that acts as an instant messenger. The conversation can be had directly in that window, or by going to the Messages folder, located at the top left corner of the Facebook blue tool bar.

A useful tool within the Facebook sidebar is the search option, whereby one can search for a specific friend who is not currently online by typing in that friend's name. Even if that person is currently offline, their name will come up as a result. People who are offline can also receive messages. They will get a notification that they have received a new message, thus, ensuring that no message will go unread.

The list of friends that appears in the sidebar is not just an arbitrary compilation of names. In fact, the list changes and updates with time, based on the people that the Facebook user is interacting with on a regular basis. So, the most recent interactions with friends on Facebook will propel those people to appear at the top of the list.

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