AOL today announced a new integration with Facebook that allows AIM and Facebook users to add friends and invite them to chat across both environments. AIM is the first instant messaging service to take advantage of Facebook Chat’s new API/interface to offer chatting for users. The new service is already available in beta here: www.aim.com/beta. It further extends AOL’s integration with Facebook Connect across various AOL properties, including the AOL.com homepage, as well as Facebook’s integration with Lifestream, AOL’s social aggregator. T

"Integrating AIM and Facebook Chat is a great step on the path we’re pursuing to offer universal access through AIM across a variety of communications platforms – and users can look forward to more innovations to come," said Michelle Trainor, Vice President, AIM

Under the new partnership, Facebook Chat will also be tightly integrated with Lifestream, which aggregates updates and feeds from various social networking sites into the AIM environment. Lifestream is an application with the ability to initiate real-time communication directly from Facebook activities. Lifestream users can go directly to the "IM" hyperlink and start chatting with both their AIM and Facebook friends, instantly.

AIM (http://www.aim.com) was the first consumer instant messaging service when it was launched in 1997. AOL’s ICQ (http://www.icq.com) is one of the most popular international instant messaging services and is available in 22 languages.