Infiltrate Web Sites.
Occupy portal real estate.

Do you want to spread the word of your messaging or telephony product? Tap into the virality of online communities to promote downloads and trigger conversations?

Then you'll invent ways to blend your offering into their user experience.  

Skype works with portal partners around the world to show Skype presence for their members and to promote Skype downloads. For example, Bebo partnered with Skype in February 2006 with Skype Me buttons and a download page.

Now, 18 months later, Microsoft's Live teams use their centralized, server-side programming tools to great advantage. Bebo and Microsoft announced their partnership last week.

First, at parity with Skype, the Windows Live Messenger web services let portals publish simple user presence (online, offline, busy, etc.).

Exposing Windows Live Contacts raises the bar. Using the WLC API and Windows Live Data API, Bebo will be able to add features to their service. They might help you:

"Our agreement with Microsoft Windows Live delivers a powerful, new way to instantly update and keep in touch with friends and serves to make the Bebo user experience even more compelling and interactive."

-- Joanna Shields, President, International at Bebo, from a 21 August 2007 news release

• Search your WLC friends to see if they are on Bebo.
• Invite them to be your Bebo friends.
• Invite your Bebo friends to become Live friends. 
• Notify you of opportunities to keep your Bebo and WLM buddy lists sync'd. 
• See updates to their Windows Live profiles in a portal context.  

Messaging and telephony web services help portals enrich user experiences and integrate site

Neither Microsoft nor Skype offer web services to let you:

• synchronize your mood messages (writing once, publishing both in the client, on the web, and through the API).
• synchronize data in your profile (like your home page, home town, main phone number, bio photo, etc.), saving re-entry across systems. 
• launch from a selection of contacts on the portal into a multi-party conversations in text chat or voice/video conference call   
• blend public text chats and bulletin-board-style web forums

Skype has ten large online partners: Bebo, Chinagate, Jubii, LunarStorm, Onet, OpenBC, Pacnet, PC Home, Six Apart, TOM Online. How many of them are building out their Microsoft Live partnership as we speak?   

Once built, which presence service will be featured in each site's user experience? Which will be magnets for specific subcultures? Which social groups will switch to better serve their communication patterns, to capture their spirit?