Bianca Bartz
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 Companies Form Partnership MySpace and Skype have formed a new partnership to take communicating on the web to the next level. The announcement made this morning will change the future of social networking, and will be integrated by November for use in over 20 countries. Skype, an eBay owned company, offers free telephone calls over the internet. I’ve been using Skype personally for over a year and I can honestly say that it’s one of the most incredible communication tools to date. The quality is BETTER than a regular phone conversation, if you can believe that. While traveling this summer, I used Skype to phone friends and family back home while in Germany and Beijing. All you need is an internet connection and a headset with built-in mic. And if you have a web cam, you can have face to face chats too. Technology can really help you feel close to home. So what does this mean for social networking site, MySpace? “Users with a Skype account will be able to click a single button in their MySpace profile to call the computer or telephone of another member, so they could reach people in their network even when they’re not online.” It’s not that they get anything unavailable to non-members, but the Skype integration will simply make it easier to make a voice connection with their friends. It will be excellent exposure for both companies. At the moment, Skype has 220 million users, and MySpace has over 110 million member. The two companies will split the revenue. “Standard PC-to-PC phone calls will be free, but users must pay for “premium” options such as their own personal phone number, voice mail, call forwarding, and the ability to make calls from a computer to land lines or cell phones.” You didn’t think it was all free, did you? No matter the venture, eBay is all business, all the time. OK, so what about the rest of us? The die hard Facebook addicts? Facebook is MySpace’s biggest rival, with over 200,000 new people registering each day. Then again, who really cares. You don’t need to be a member of any community to use the service; anyone can get a Skype account, this is just another cross-promotion tactic.  Kyle Brinkman, MySpace vice president of product development, said the service won't be another vehicle for unwanted solicitations in MySpace, a unit of Fox Interactive Media Inc.
Users who set their MySpace profile to "private" won't receive a Skype call from someone who is not on their friend list. Users may also selectively add individuals to their Skype personal contact list, and any call can be blocked at any time.
"We went to Skype and said we could incorporate your voice engine into our network - we're not just slapping on an instant messenger client that doesn't connect to MySpace," Brinkman said in a phone interview. "It's not just a stand-alone product offering - it's tightly integrated into the MySpace experience."
(physorg)References: physorg Comment: on Skype Me On MySpace |
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