On the face of it seems like they have done exactly the opposite to what is being proposed here:  http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=330993&st=0&gopid=5490989&#entry5490989

I have been out of the loop a bit this past week so wasn't aware of this thread, thank you for pointing out. I haven't even thought of ever needing any of those features before. At the moment I don't itching to use any of them if they do integrate into this new friend chat thingy, but maybe will change my mind once I start to use.

On the chat as it stands at the moment, I have just had a quick play. Someone else touched on this in the groundspeak forum, but I find it a bit alarming too that anyone can a message to anyone, and include a photo along with the message, that is open to possible abuse.

@walktall I think you are right about keeping it all in house eventually. With this new chat thingy I got an email from someone who sent me a message, but it told me to log in to the site to see the message. I have no ads on the chat page at the moment, but if everyone has to log in to that to see their messages then it could be a big money spinner for GS if they did place ads on that page.