Thanks Tony, but this is what I mean:

In the picture I attached, you see there are some contacts floating at the top of the screen. I find that layout very very useful. It doesn't take much of the screen, and those contacts simply pop up when the user is on line, then they disappear. Also, you can move them anywhere you want and the save their last position so that next time that person comes on line his contacs reappears where it was.