After teasing an “awesome” announcement at the company’s Palto Alto headquarters for Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the cafeteria stage in a live-streamed event to toss out plenty of facts and figures about social networking as he slowly led up to the main event: Skype-powered video calling and Group Chat.

Announced today on The Facebook Blog, chat is getting a major overhaul, although you probably didn’t know about it if you were one of the thousands suffering through CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s sweat-induced rambling leading up to the announcement. Facebook’s chat improvements are a three-tied event, including Group Chat as well as a new design and yes, as widely rumored, Skype-driven video calling right from the website itself.

Skype’s contribution to the effort is to provide an optimized version of their software, embedding the traditional video calling experience into Facebook’s website, with no client software to install. To enable the service, simply make sure your Facebook Chat status is set to “online” -- now you’ll be able to initiate a Facebook video call right from the Chat box or even click on a friend’s Profile while they’re online, where you’ll see a new “Call” button at the top right.

Of course, both users will need a webcam (or iSight-enabled Mac, for those of us living the Mac|Life) in order to use the service, but otherwise the Skype partnership works seamlessly with a brief download (Facebook claims less than 30 seconds) prior to the first connection, which means even your less-technical friends will finally be able to join the video chat party. Also, the beauty of the service is that no Skype signup or username is required -- if you’re a Facebook user, you’re ready to go.

Skype CEO Tony Bates joined Mark Zuckerberg at today’s event, announcing that over 50 percent of the company’s traffic is now video-based, already averaging 350 million minutes of video each month -- and that’s prior to Wednesday’s Facebook partnership. “Think of this as a mini-Skype client,” Bates explained during the post-announcement question and answer session.

In addition to the video calling partnership powered by Skype, Facebook has redesigned their chat service with a new sidebar that lists people you message most. The company claims it’s easier than ever to find your friends and start a conversation, with a sidebar that adjusts to your browser window and automatically appears when the window is wide enough. Should you be concerned that unwanted friends will come calling while you’re web browsing in your skivvies, Zuckerberg explains that users will have to allow the video call with a pop-up window.

Last but not least, multi-person Group Chat has also arrived on Facebook, which the company claims is one of their most requested features. If you and your friends want to figure out what movie to see, simply add them all to a chat and you can all join in the decision. Select Add Friends to Chat to add others as well.

Group Chat and the revised chat are available today and video calling is rolling out to all users over the next few weeks, but you can get on board today if you simply can’t wait. The company hasn’t said if group video calling might be part of the mix, but has nothing to announce at this time. Mobile devices are also left out of the video calling fun for now, although Zuckerberg claims that Group Chat works fine on a mobile browser just as well as it does on the desktop.

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