Skype Opens Up With Google Talk and Yahoo VOIP Competition
Google Talk has been hogging both the search and messaging spotlights over the past 24 hours with its messaging and VOIP launch. However, let us not forget that there are other messaging tools on the market that are just as useful and not integrated into GMail as Google Talk is. Skype, of course, is one of them and the big daddy of VOIP messaging. Skype, with over 51 million users, is celebrating its second anniversary next week by opening up its platform to anyone who wants to integrate Skype’s presence and instant messaging services into their website or application.
By opening up Skype to a multitude of developers, instant messaging features can be added into websites and applications such as online gaming, e-commerce, communications and productivity tools, instantly building community and connections between people who can chat and alert others to their online availability. By opening up its platform to the web, Skype will instantly be creating the largest open instant messaging platform in the world.
“In two short years, Skype has pioneered a revolution in global Internet communications by making it simple for anyone with an Internet connection to make and receive superior quality phone calls for free,” said Niklas Zennstrom, Skype CEO and co-founder. “People love to talk, and voice is fast becoming the key category for global Internet communications. Skype’s mission is to make communicating through the Internet natural and easy to do, so in addition to voice communications we offer the power of both instant messaging and presence, which have become as ubiquitous as email over the last five years. As we enter our third year in business and as the only company totally focused on global Internet communications, we think now is a perfect time to make these popular features available to anyone who wants to build community and communications into their website or applications.”
Skype, which was the talk of News Corp and Yahoo acquisition rumors, is going to be experiencing a jump in competition from both the Google Talk launch (which is sure to add various plug-ins and open itself up to developers) and Yahoo Messenger, which quietly added VOIP communications to its messenger application this year.
