Skype Outlook Toolbar 1.1 beta testing is nearing completion but a broader ranges of beta testers sought.

My introduction to Skype two and a half years ago came through meeting Skype's Toolbar Product Manager, Peter Kalmstrom, (at that time an independent contract developer) via Skype while evaluating one of his then third party Skype accessories. A few weeks later Peter asked me to be a beta tester for a Skype Outlook Toolbar development contract that would integrate Skype into Outlook. A few months later my first guest contributor post to Skype Journal came with a review of the resulting Skype Outlook Toolbar 1.0 in the fall of 2005 during my recovery from some major surgery.

Over the past few months Peter's Skype Toolbar team has been developing a new release 1.1 for the Skype Outlook Toolbar. A primary driver for a new release is Outlook 2007 compatibility; however, Peter is also using this opportunity to improve the Toolbar's overall performance.

For this release its development has been facilitated by several external testers who, for whatever reason, would come to the Skype Toolbars page in the Developer Zone. One major difference for this release: we have all been participants in a Skype Toolbar for Outlook beta Group Chat where we could immediately report and share issues. Often they would be fixed within hours. (Not all! Some of the more challenging issues needed more creative solutions.) As a result of this Group Chat I have become more aware of different configurations for Outlook implementation¹ and their impact on an Outlook plug-in's development.

While the basic feature set remains, a few features that were rarely used, if at all, but heavily impacted "processor overhead" have been removed. Aside from the Outlook 2007 compatibility I would consider this another major improvement as certainly in my testing, I have noticed significantly less impact on my Outlook activity when this beta Toolbar is installed.