Out of curiosity, how many of you use GMail Chat? I had used it a few times in the past; however, I really started getting into using it over the past few months with work related to AM Beat. Ever since starting to use it regularly, I have become an avid user of the chat client. It allows me to communicate directly with the people I e-mail so instead of having to wait hours or even days for a response I can get an answer immediately.

Sure I could simply chat or call these people using another client (AIM, Skype or even Facebook chat), but there is just something about being able to do it while checking my e-mail that simplifies and expedites the process of getting any work done.

I regularly e-mail about two dozen people on matter related to AMBeat and as of late, I have been chatting more than I have been actually e-mailing. The increase in productivity this has caused has been tremendous. It has literally saved me days in waiting time between e-mails. The only downside is that my conversations are not all automatically saved and threaded as they are with e-mails.

How do you feel about networking online via instant messenger? Is it unprofessional even if it may be more effective? After all, AIM is more targeted to teens than business owners, but then again so was Facebook.