Somewhat related to point 7: Integrate Circles with Google Chat, and allow users to set different visibility per Circle.
As buggy as Facebook Chat is, this feature exponentially increases the value proposition for me. (You can leave certain Friend Lists offline, while having others online.)
It's 2011 and even companies like Skype still haven't implemented this, despite it being requested repeatedly by users.
You can't honestly expect users to have the same 'Available', 'Busy', or 'Invisible' status for a chat list that could contain hundreds of people ranging from friends and family to classmates, business contacts, acquaintances, etc.
When working on a project, I need to appear 'Available' to everybody else involved, while leaving other contact groups offline so as not to be contacted about trivial matters that don't require an immediate response.
Other people I've discussed this with have said things like not wishing to be 'Available' to work colleagues outside of work hours.
The list is endless, and any company that takes Instant Messaging seriously needs this. IM isn't going anywhere.
Regarding Circles + Chat: If you turn on chatting on Google+ it will ask you which Circles you want to be visible to. I'm not sure if this applies to all instances of Talk, and it looks like you can only say "I am visible to these Circles" (later configurable with the little dropdown next to the chat list in G+), but otherwise it seems to match what you're looking for.
You're right, to some extent it is what I'm talking about, however they state "People in these circles who also enable chat will be able to see when you're online and chat with you." and it feels like more of an all-or-nothing system (adding or removing Circles entirely from Chat).
Whereas Facebook's single-click 'on the fly' interface is superior to this - all groups always visible, one-click online and expanded, one-click offline and collapsed.
I think that was one of my first suggestions with the Send feedback button. But, you can add only certain circles right now that will be able to see you online.
As buggy as Facebook Chat is, this feature exponentially increases the value proposition for me. (You can leave certain Friend Lists offline, while having others online.)
It's 2011 and even companies like Skype still haven't implemented this, despite it being requested repeatedly by users.
You can't honestly expect users to have the same 'Available', 'Busy', or 'Invisible' status for a chat list that could contain hundreds of people ranging from friends and family to classmates, business contacts, acquaintances, etc.
When working on a project, I need to appear 'Available' to everybody else involved, while leaving other contact groups offline so as not to be contacted about trivial matters that don't require an immediate response.
Other people I've discussed this with have said things like not wishing to be 'Available' to work colleagues outside of work hours.
The list is endless, and any company that takes Instant Messaging seriously needs this. IM isn't going anywhere.