• Facebook is the most popular social networking website, with over 200 million active users. One of the more useful Facebook applications is its Chat service, which allows users to communicate instantly with their friends. Instead of exchanging "Wall" postings or private e-mail messages, Facebook Chat allows real-time interaction between friends. This guide will show you how to change your Facebook chat settings to optimize your Chat experience.

• Facebook Chat is a great way to keep in touch with your friends, family and professional contacts while logged into Facebook. The default settings may not be for everyone, so it's important to know how to personalize them. If you want to optimize the Chat experience by storing your personal preferences, continue reading this useful guide.

• The easiest way to access Facebook is to enter its specific URL: www.facebook.com. You can also find it by entering "facebook" into a search engine and clicking on the first link.

• The front page of Facebook.com has a dark blue bar at the top of the screen. On the right side of the bar are two dialog boxes. On the left dialog box, type in the e-mail address that you used to sign up for the account. On the left, enter the password that you created when creating your membership, then click the "Login" button.

• Once you have logged in, you will find a "Chat" bar at the bottom right side of the screen. Click on it and the bar will expand to show a list of friends who are available to chat, as well as an "Options" bar. Click on the options bar to reveal the settings choices.

• Facebook Chat's Options bar lists six settings:

1. Go Offline
2. Pop out Chat
3. Show Feed Stories in Chat
4. Play Sound for New Messages
5. Keep Online Friends Window Open
6. Show Only Names in Online Friends

From here, simply click on your preferred options. You can click anywhere else on the page to minimize the Options bar, and your settings will automatically be saved.

Facebook Chat enables a number of different features related to chatting and you can edit the settings, as described, to get the best possible experience. There are other features beyond Facebook Chat that can be accessed through Facebook applications. Two such examples are using Meebo's Chat application to chat with others through instant messaging and the Stranger Chat application which lets you talk to people 1-on-1 on Facebook beyond your immediate circle of friends.

• The ability to adjust Chat settings gives Facebook users a greater level of control over the Facebook experience. The "Friend Lists" feature is a well-crafted tool that increases privacy and decreases unwanted Chat messages. Along with other user-friendly options, the site has made such settings very easy to implement and change.