Feb. 17, 2010: Today's tip is for all of those who use both iChat and Facebook, and wished you could use Facebook chat from within iChat. As of fairly recently, it seems this is now possible, and easy to do.

Visit the Facebook Chat tour page, and then click on the Chat link to get the instructions. (You'll need to be logged in to see that page.)

Alternatively, you can just follow the instructions right here:

1. In iChat, open Preferences, and go to the Accounts tab. Click the plus sign at the bottom of the window to add a new account.

2. Select Jabber Account from the Account Type drop-down menu.

3. Enter your_username@chat.facebook.com in the Account Name field, and enter your Facebook password in the Password field. Replace your_username with your Facebook username, obviously.

4. Click the triangle next to Server Options to reveal those settings. Enter chat.facebook.com in the Server field, and 5222 in the Port field. Make sure the Use SSL box is not checked.

5. Click Done.

You should now be able to chat with both your Facebook friends and your iChat buddies from within iChat. I can't confirm that this works, as I don't have a Facebook account. Friends with Facebook, however, have said it worked fine for them. Thanks to Mac OS X Hints reader Geobunny for pointing out the Facebook iChat page.

Source: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/021610-chat-with-facebook-friends-within.html