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Facebook Will Launch In-Browser Video Chat Next Week In Partnership With Skype
- instakill 15y agoSurely TC would have had an embargo on this story?
- amirmc 15y agoArrington: "We’ve never broken an embargo at TechCrunch. Not once. Today that ends. From now our new policy is to break every embargo. We’ll happily agree to whatever you ask of us, and then we’ll just do whatever we feel like right after that. We may break an embargo by one minute or three days. We’ll choose at random." http://techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/death-to-the-embargo/ http://techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/death-to-the-embargo/
- StavrosK 15y ago> From now our new policy is to break every embargo. > We will honor embargoes from trusted companies and PR firms who give us the news exclusively Bleh.
- headShrinker 15y agoSkype? That's what they are offering as an answer to google+? Yikes... No thanks.
- kmfrk 15y agoDo you have very bad experiences with using Skype, or is it the company you are leery of?
- gmjosack 15y agoI will never install Skype again after they kept installing uninstallable firefox plugins on my computer until Mozilla had to ban the plugin.
- walexander 15y agoGrandmas use facebook. Grandmas use skype. This is an excellent pairing and will make it even harder for Google+ to get the non-HN crowd types off of FB. Great play, i'd say.
- rryan 15y agoWhat about grandpas? http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/So_simple,_your_mother_could_do_it http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/So_simple,_your_mother_co...
- walexander 15y ago/me rolls eyes As didactic as that comment was, I suppose I could have said grandpa. I did use grandma, however, because I don't personally have any grandpas on my facebook, and in my own experience (and evidenced from this link) there are many more grandmas than grandpas on facebook: http://www.kenburbary.com/2011/03/facebook-demographics-revisited-2011-statistics-2/ http://www.kenburbary.com/2011/03/facebook-demographics-revi... Even then, however, I disagree that saying "grandma" in such a context is really that damaging. Maybe there's some point to this, but it seems unnecessarily politically correct to me.
- yalogin 15y agoReally? Why do you say so?
- pavpanchekha 15y agoGood thing Google+ came out. I know too many people who consider Skype's video chat quality a joke.
- hugh3 15y agoWorks fine for me. Maybe it's geographic?
- Aqwis 15y agoGoogle+'s video chat barely works for me at all. Maybe it's because I'm in Europe, but the video chat is basically a big blurry mess. Skype is worlds better.
- hugh3 15y agoThere's video chat in Google+? I hadn't even noticed.
- r00fus 15y agoHangouts? It's not like they didn't market that as feature #1 or #2.
- hugh3 15y agoWell, the word "hangout" doesn't really jump out as meaning "video chat" to me.
- muuh-gnu 15y agoYou mean, like "Skype" does? Gmail has also been offering a cross-platform "Google Voice & Video Chat" for some time now. Hangout will probably be a rebranded version extended to include video conference support.
- pbhjpbhj 15y agoI'm in UK. I was totally blown away by Skype's video chat on Christmas day when I first used it to chat to parents. Few drop outs but better quality sound than a phone call and video ... "we're living in the future" as they say.
- joejohnson 15y agoWow. This is the something "awesome"? Google+ is looking better and better.
- hugh3 15y agoIf you were a teenage girl, you'd think this was the awesomest thing ever. (Or, y'know, whatever the translation of "awesome" into teenage girl at the moment.)
- chc 15y agoThey still say "awesome," actually.
- StavrosK 15y agoI don't think teenage girls haven't heard of Skype, though...
- nagnatron 15y agoNot to be an ageist, but you're something like 35+?
- StavrosK 15y agoI don't know whether to be offended or flattered!
- kmfrk 15y agoGod I feel old. And I'm in my bloody twenties.
- StavrosK 15y agoWhy is my comment making everyone feel old or young or whatever it is? All I said is that teenagers have probably heard of Skype, what's the fuss?
- krashidov 15y agoIs the video-conferencing going to be free? Is it free on Google+ (I have not used it yet) ? If there is free videoconferencing on facebook, what are the advantages of paying for it on skype?
- FaceKicker 15y agoIt is free on Google+, and Facebook would be committing suicide by charging for it. There's no way they would.
- 18pfsmt 15y agoMy guess is that there will be adverts via FB, but ad-free when paying Skype directly for it. Edit: To add that I hope Google offers a paid version without the data mining or adverts. I assume this is the monetization strategy for Google+, if someone knows differently, please let me know.
- Johngibb 15y agoVideoconferencing is free on Skype as well... not sure what point you're making?
- natesm 15y agoNo, one on one video is.
- 18pfsmt 15y agoTo clarify, G+ allows for video conferencing with a maximum of 10 people[1]. Skype requires payment for multi-party video conferencing. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B#Features http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B#Features Edit: Added citation.
- r00fus 15y agoWow, Google+ really got the timing right. Facebook looks to me like they're on the defensive... if FB aren't directly reacting to Google+, I hope they've had time to get the kinks worked out. This is getting very interesting.
- brudgers 15y agoThere seems to be more evidence of a cohesive strategy on Microsoft's part given their investment in Facebook and purchase of Skype. On the other hand, given the invitation only rollout of Google+ it looks more like Google was forced to do something quickly before they were ready. Being first out the gate is a tactic, not a strategy. As for Facebook having the kinks worked out - with the better part of a billion users they've got the big one solved.
- r00fus 15y ago> As for Facebook having the kinks worked out - with the better part of a billion users they've got the big one solved. Not sure where you're going here... Facebook and video chat aren't synonymous, so how does having millions of users mean they're going to get it right? > Google was forced to do something quickly before they were ready Can you explain why you think Google+ isn't ready? What's "broken"?
- brudgers 15y agoFacebook has solved the big problem for social networks - lots of people use it. The evidence that Google+ wasn't ready to be a Facebook killer is that it is invitation only. Living in a college town, I was around Facebook when it was exclusively for students. Facebook's growth from exclusive to pervasive was enabled by the fact that students move on get married and have babies - looking at pictures of her first granddaughter is what sold Facebook to mom. On the other hand, the bloggers and programmers invited to Google+ will remain bloggers and programmers. They're already married and have kids and more importantly already update Facebook with photos for grandma and uncles. Don't get me wrong, Google will make money off this thing even with limited adoption and the assumption that it will ever roll out of perpetual beta (or preview in this case) is not a settled matter based on Google's history.
- brudgers 15y agoIf this is true, Google+ with limited availability and limited geographic reach is essentially still born as a Facebook killer because there is no reason for your mom to switch. Sure Google will mine some meaningful user data and Google+ will almost certainly be a success in terms of generating additional advertising revenue. But it's now even less unlikely to take off with consumers. The problem is that Google+ is an attempt to solve Google's problem - shareholders' demand for a presence in "Social Networking," rather than solving an actual problem experienced by social networking service consumers.
- RobAtticus 15y agoIf Facebook's video chat debut is anything like their text chat debut, I think Google+ still has the edge here. Facebook chat was (and to a degree, still is) pretty flaky. I've stopped holding my breath for new Facebook features because I find them to usually be buggy, especially when they debut. Hell, all day today my Facebook has been on the fritz. There's some random mesh of newsfeed/friend list on the right that is either the ugliest thing they've ever devised or somebody screwed up. Also, a huge benefit of g+ that I saw somebody point out was that I get my social presence on other google properties like Gmail, Gcal, Finance, etc via the new top navigator bar. So I don't think G+ is only video chat.
- iloktr 15y ago> there is no reason for your mom to switch That may not be such a bad thing. On top of that, unless they fix their privacy concerns, some people will always prefer Google+.
- amirmc 15y ago> The problem is that Google+ is an attempt to solve Google's problem ... rather than solving an actual problem experienced by social networking service consumers I disagree that it's not solving users' problems. Circles seems to be an intuitive way to group people that you have different conversations with. Yes, FB has lists but IMHO circles is a better approach.
- inportb 15y ago
- nostromo 15y agoRandom thought: Apple could now play the kingmaker in video chat. They could connect FaceTime with either Facebook/Microsoft/Skype or Google+ to give either a lot more penetration in the non-tech US market. More likely, they will just ignore both and just keep doing their own thing.
- lukeschlather 15y agoSkype is the incumbent. I regularly hear people talking about Skyping each other. FaceTime is going to need to connect to Skype to compete. Google+ is in a pretty similar position - I chat with people all the time via Google Chat, and if there's video, I can use the same interface with a very low barrier to entry - I already talk to people every day using it. An Apple-only video protocol, by contrast, is basically just a tech demo for most practical applications. Unless you refuse to talk to people who don't own Apple products.
- maxwell 15y agoOr everyone gets Apple products.
- drivebyacct2 15y agowhat would give you any indication that Apple would do this after failing to even make good on opening up FaceTime.
- nostromo 15y agoAs I said in my comment, it's not likely -- just interesting.
- drivebyacct2 15y agoBut I don't understand... how is Apple is any more of a unique position to do this than anyone else? It seems to me that if Google is already using a documented open standard that it would make it more likely that Google+ becomes the video grand-daddy that others want to plug into, especially given the Android explosion, etc.
- odiroot 15y agoIt's a really good moment for Google to completely open up Plus. Hype wears off fast.
- stanleydrew 15y agoHype does wear off fast. Luckily for g+ the hype is backed by substance, which isn't so quick to wear off. I think they're doing fine with the limited invite system and they have no reason to open it up faster than they can handle the load comfortably.
- marcamillion 15y agoWell...so I might as well do a mea-culpa and confess my shortcomings to Sir Gates and the MSFT team. I must admit, at first, the $8.5B price tag seemed astronomical and it seemed that you were throwing shareholder's equity at a problem that needs to be solved with innovation. But now, with the prospect of doing 'deep' integration with Facebook, your bet seems very prescient. Even if it was non-intentional, i.e. if you guys had no idea that Google would release Hangout, but talk about great timing. If Microsoft can successfully integrate Skype into Facebook and expand their userbase even 2X, that's kinda staggering given the baseline number of 130 million they would be starting from. All of a sudden the price seems like a bargain, if they can pull off something like this.
- drivebyacct2 15y agoHuddle is the group texting. you meant hangouts.
- marcamillion 15y agoSorry...you're right. I apologize. Fixed.
- danfitch 15y agoI wrote www.squarechat.com a while ago as a pet project, but it just seems like there isn't a good way to accomplish this without using flash or a plugin.
- zaidf 15y agoI'm underwhelmed. May be facebook should first get their text chat right before moving to video.
- statictype 15y agoWhat's wrong with their text chat?
- 5l 15y agoIt's horribly unreliable in comparison to Gtalk.
- Calamitous 15y agoyawn
- eneveu 15y agoThis is just the beginning... I bet we'll soon see Facebook's own "Circles" feature. As I wrote two days ago ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2707775 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2707775 ), Paul Adams, previously social research lead in the Google UX team, left Google for Facebook in December: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/20/paul-adams-googler-whose-presentation-foretold-facebook-groups-heads-to-facebook/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/20/paul-adams-googler-whose-pr...
- kin 15y agoThere's already group chat and groups. It's a nestled feature but it's there.
- eneveu 15y agoFacebook indeed has similar features. But we should not simply compare features when comparing social platforms. Philippe Beaudoin made a very insightful post about this: "For a social platform, the implication of turning a feature into a core part of the user experience cannot be overstated. It's because the real feature of social platforms are the way its user base exploits it. If only a few users rely on friends lists as a filtering feature, the feature might as well not be there. But G+ says: "Hey! Welcome! The first thing you should do is setup some filters!" Add a few thousand users and the bandwagon effect will turn G+ into a much different place than Facebook." https://plus.google.com/107988469357342173268/posts/eHccmEr4oW1 https://plus.google.com/107988469357342173268/posts/eHccmEr4...
- ignifero 15y agoFacebook will probably soon cover the distance to google+, one way or another. The question is, is that enought to stop people (esp. early adopters) from using google+? The thing about facebook is it has become bloated, while google+ looks pure and clean. Similar to what happened to myspace.
- floppydisk 15y agoIt will depend greatly on how Facebook actually does this "deep integration" the article mentions. If they are just going to plug into skype and let your FB info become your skype username and pw, then adoption might not take off as much due to having to open and run a separate application to do anything. On the other hand, if they make each facebook chat a virtual skype call and incorporate skype sessions onto the backend, then I could see this improving chat and make adding video capabilities fairly easy. As for it taking off, if it requires no extra work then sure, their userbase might grab it and go. If it's just a plugin for skype the application, then I'm not so sure.
- ceslami 15y agoI don't think they are going to "just plug in to Skype" -- sources seem to suggest that there will be some sort of browser based experience. That said, they can definitely get a leg up on Google+ if they don't require you to download a plug-in.
- dhughes 15y agoIs video chat really popular? Other than for porn and families - sorry for the disturbing examples. I remember when Yahoo! IM chat had video chat and it was all porn and even then only the really outgoing and pervs seemed to use it. This was in the days of Connectix quick cam "eyeball cam" and it was that was b&w, or at least the first ones were. For some reason live video hasn't really caught on and even now it's not used that much at least by people I know. Is Facetime or Skype video used much?
- shazow 15y agoEveryone has families, so that's a pretty big "other than". I live in a different country than my family, so I call them on Skype video 2-4 times a week.
- ippisl 15y agoI think video chat isn't done exactly right , so it hasn't become very popular. You see this in many responses to google+'s group video chat. many say it's done right and want to use it. Another hint is group telepresence for businesses. it's pretty successful even tought very expensive. And some people who use video chat to remote relationships use it in a unique way: not the center of the experience but part of a shared experience. So they put a video chat on a laptop and in their main computer they watch a synchronized movie together , for example. And still the quality for most people isn't very good because of cameras and bandwidth issues. So that's part of what exciting with google+ video chat. that they may finally get it right and at scale.
- schiptsov 15y agoSilverlight installation required? ^_^