Facebook, Skype Getting Really Friendly 119
cgriffin21 writes "Facebook and Skype are reportedly in talks over a deal that would integrate Skype calling capabilities into Facebook user accounts. Such an agreement would give both Skype and Facebook not only a leg up on rival VoIP and social networking services from the likes of Google, but also the combined force of two Internet-based services beloved by consumers. The talks, which were reported by All Things Digital on Wednesday, stem from Facebook's goal of merging IP communications and social networking communities more closely together. Facebook in recent weeks had also been rumored to be developing a mobile device of its own."
Magic (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder what impact this might have on magic jack. I've used that service far more than any other type of online communications. It also has a nice feature of letting me take it oversea's and as long as i have a high speed connection, i can still make any phone calls back to north america for free.
I wont use facebook (Score:2, Interesting)
Without open alternatives, this will continue... (Score:3, Interesting)
I haven't checked recently, but what's the status of voip over jabber? We've seeing a lot of collusion and conglomeration between monolithic "walled garden" services, and I think we'll see more of it. The open source community has alternatives, but I'm starting to think we're going to have to step up our game to fight the momentum that the closed systems have.
I think it's positive that Diaspora was able to raise $200k through crowd-sourcing, and I don't agree with people who say it was a waste of money, if only because it showed it was possible. But the reality is that $200k is pennies in comparison to the funds that Facebook, Skype, and others have. And I think it's fair to say that for every talented, idealistic open source programmer willing to work on the side to open the up communication channels, whether it's the web or voip or anything else, there's dozens of talented developers willing to take large salaries to work on proprietary, walled software.
We seem to have solved a lot of the questions that open source brought up when it was first popularized by Linux (management, how to make a profit, etc), but we still have some big questions to ask in terms of how to fund these projects while maintaining independence, and how to compete with well-funded corporations that have an invested interest in keeping things proprietary and walled off. Not just on features, but on user interface and experience, stability, scalability, and other software design concerns.
I don't know if I have any answers, but I'd sure love to hear suggestions. Call it the next big challenge for open source, but we increasingly need to be able to make user-facing software that appeals to the least savvy of users, we need to make it open and flexible, and we need to make it compete with the cycle of new features that come out of proprietary software with massive bank accounts.
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Appleseed - Open Source, Distributed Social Networking
http://opensource.appleseedproject.org/ [appleseedproject.org]
Re:yuck (Score:3, Interesting)
This is /., Skype is, dare I say it, I dare, fashionable. /. has a raging hate-on for anything deemed fashionable. Except for being fashionable by hating anything else that's fashionable. That sort of fashionable is A-OK.
Re:Facebook beloved? (Score:3, Interesting)
It just hasn't peaked yet. You'll see. Facebook is the flavor of the month and it WILL go the way of myspace. It's just not going to have legs to stand on when people tire of the lack of attention to it's basic features, security, and all the attention on adding the latest answers to questions not asked; geolocating me and my stupid posts, unwanted tagging, badly integrated media types, shitty apps filled with malware and ads, etc. Yeah, Grandma and Grandpa are going to be "sticky" to facebook in two years time with their HUGE Farmvilles! Would you also like to send me $6000 to help me unblock my Nigerian back account lottery winnings?
Facebook will be around as long as their scam fools the general population. "Like" that, Saddos!