According to Kara Swisher, Facebook and Skype will soon become deeply integrated through a partnership that “will include allowing users to SMS and call Facebook friends from Skype”. Also, Facebook users will be able to video chat with each other. Facebook has been testing a number of integrations with Skype for some time, most recently testing a number of ways to get users to invite their Skype friends to join the site.
Back in June we covered a deeper integration between the two companies. At the time it was just Skype that had automatically installed a browser add-on that let Facebook users view which of their Facebook friends were online. While Facebook previously was testing video chat within their own chat product, it appears as though Facebook will have to be the primary video communication tool to integrate with Facebook for the time being.
There have been a number of applications on the Facebook Platform that offer video communication services however none of them have appeared to taken off significantly, aside from a few chatroulette-like products. While the timing of this partnership isn’t clear, it’s most likely in the next few weeks as the new Skype product is preparing to be rolled out. We’ll be sure to cover the news as we learn more about this partnership!
Source: All Facebook
Wednesday, September 29, 2010