Monday reading list
Brightcove will serve video from commercial producers. Facebridge will let users distribute their own videos. 2006 will be the year that Skype turns millions of Skypers into podcasters, vloggers, and videographers. Who at Skype is working on vid distribution alliances? The long tail of edge created content will dominate in time but there is still good money in Skype as a TV and movie player for the next few years.
Rich Tehrani has a timely riff on mashing up Service Oriented Architecture with VoIP. Bringing voice into enterprise app development.
Another Niklas-is-cool profile. Muesli for breakfast! Niklas is still hard at work with Skype: “My ambition is to make Skype into the world’s largest online communication company. That’s the driver. Financial gain is secondary.”
Google tests phone-enabling AdWords. Long-established technology, but never deployed at global scale. Dear eBay, Skype could design this in one day, prototype in three days, cut deals for the backend in one week, be serving US customers before Christmas. By eBay calling both parties, they (a) preserve caller/called anonymity, (b) match calls to the auction/sale, (c) improve the sale of lucrative but challenging product categories, and (d) charge sellers a small fee to more-than-cover costs. The faq.
cnskyper's Q-Face plug-in. Delightful creative art for your Skype profile.
Dan Gillmor in FT: Rise up against US oppressors. A defense of Internet application providers like Skype against SBC/AT&T and their congressional henchmen.
A Skype Equivalent Without "Big Brother"? (Slashdot). The meme continues to spread that an American Skype will be compromised worldwide by US police, military, and intelligence.
While Internet phone services are catching on rapidly, quality and reliability are still suspect (BusinessWeek). As prices fall, sound and consistency become competitive differentiators.
BT will offer free mobile phone service (TheBusinessOnline). BT’s new service will combine its existing Openzone wi-fi hotspots with a patchwork of new wi-max networks to compete with mobile operators and Skype.
Thanks to Rick Hultz and Jirong Zhou 周继荣 for the tips.
Comments
eBay will implement ppcall for sure - they announced it directly on the famous acquisition presentation.
eBay ppcall is already in the oven.
But the question is what are skype plans regarding the local search ppcall - the mega gold pot that Google, Yahoo (with Ingenio), SuperPages, Citysearch, AOL (with Ingenio), MSN and all the big business directories/verticals are coveting.
Skype's IE toolbar tags phones on web pages. Glue this with a top class business directory infrastructure, and now you're playing the real game. And we're not forgetting the 1-800 free call feature (Users of dexonline.com just need to filter search results to toll free number and slap 'em with skype).
Skype's job site posted a major vacancy for this role in the past. Now there's still a reminiscent post ->
http://www.skype.com/company/jobs/london/#job-PMSD-SO
The future seems to bring a big battle on clients-based ppcall -> Skype Vs. Gtalk Vs. Yahoo Vs. MSN
Skype was quick to make the first move and probably plans something big next.
Yahoo, armed with Skype's former product director Eileen Broch, won't sit back for long.
Google's gtalk is behind in terms of userbase, but full of surprises as we know.
Posted by: Uri L. | November 28, 2005 02:22 AM
How can SBC say that Skype and other VOIP services are using there bandwidth when I am paying for the usage of that bandwidth 24/7 with my own money. Lets talk about how many people have DSL and don't use it during the day. Why should I be restricted from deciding how to use the bandwidth with which they are selling me. If they get away with this .......the only hope is for wireless providers since running physical lines to homes is unrealistic for a new provider to provide unrestricted access.
Posted by: mgilbert | November 28, 2005 11:18 AM
I use Skype-In and Skype-Out. Is this affected by the FCC ruling? Is Skype required to be compliant?
Posted by: alex | November 28, 2005 12:33 PM