No Hype Skype

By Carl Ford

When it comes to presence engines, I am a big advocate and I try to use them all. Each one of the Instant Messenger platforms has had its day in the sun.

AOL was embedded into my wife and children’s Internet access, and with my wife known by her ID on AOL, I doubt she will ever leave. The ICQ acquisition gave me the ability to move on.

When Yahoo! Messenger came I was a big supporter. In a company I used to work for, we used Yahoo! Messenger for all-day discussions and the back channel for conference calls about the company. Then, Microsoft came in with SIP and non -SIP flavors and people migrated, and I came on board to keep up.

So Jabber became an underlying solution for people wanting a single client. And others followed, like Trillian and the Pulver communicator, Which brings us to Skype. Back at home, Kazaa was turning my kids computer into a virus incubator, and I was screaming that music was not to be downloaded. (Not only a Bell Head, but a RIAA compliant Bell Head). I was a latecomer to Skype, out of fear. So when Nicolas Zennstrom gave me the opportunity to ask him about Kazaa vs. Skype, and he said that those issues would not be there with Skype, I loaded Skype and used it to talk with my International friends who used the service too.

Skype was now considered the premier Instant Messenger. The iPhone of 2003 was simple, intuitive, easy to navigate and “it just worked.” As the rest of us drew up standards that traversed NATs and made firewall-like devices that were suppose to ensure Internet end-to-end communication principles, Skype continued to steam roll through the International dialing community to the point where wholesale minutes were down by more than 15% for some friends.

Then Google brought GoogleTalk on board, which I contend is why EBay bought Skype. At the time, remember, Google had challenged EBay with Froogle, and the integrated approach. Imho the price of $2.6 billion could only be explained in the context of a synergistic big picture. And based on the price, Skype was considered EBay’s version of Seward’s Folly.

But EBay is probably going to have the last laugh. I say that because Skype is coming around again to me through my family. Skype is being adopted now by friends that are the “Joe the Plumbers” in my life. Friends near my house that I only see in social contexts are now joining my Skype buddy list. And when I ask them who else they have on the system it shows the beachhead of international communication has moved inland. My daughter in college video chats with her dorm mates and occasionally will call me when the balance is low or the memory kicks in that parents expect updates.

And I have been letting Skype calls complete to my cell phone, when I am not by the headset. The result is I have refreshed my minutes from Skype twice this year. Now Skype is being integrated into Digium’s Asterisk and AudioCodes is licensing the codec for the IP Phones. It is clearly going to continue to grow the eco system. I can’t wait to see who wants to Skype me next.