Pager I don't see this as competing with AIM et al at all (heh). First off, it's several extra steps to get a person's screen name from their profile (if it's even listed) and get them up on the service, if they're even signed on. Secondly, I can see it being really helpful for contacting mods and admins when in need. So long as individual users can disable the feature I actually think it would be really helpful overall.
I've used the gmail chat more than I thought I would, and it would save me the silly 4-5 PMs back and forth that you get when answering questions for people (which I'm happy to do - I just want it to be efficient).
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Cogito ergo spud -- I think, therefore I yam
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