4 ms·

While it's certainly true that past performance of a technology is not a flawless indicator of future success, I'm not clear on what makes "now" the time for vi

While it's certainly true that past performance of a technology is not a flawless indicator of future success, I'm not clear on what makes "now" the time for video chat. With the iPad, Apple's key insight was that tablets had sucked because the OS hadn't been meticulously tuned to afford use on tablets. I'm curious as to what people think the key insight is that Facebook is bringing to video chat? From what I'm reading here the TC author seems to think that Joe Average User wasn't using skype or stickam or any of the previous offerings for video chat because the user base wasn't there. I don't know about that, because all of my friends have had skype forever and I can count the number of times I've video chatted with them on one finger. I feel like I wasn't using those, and won't be using this, not because the user base wasn't FIXNUM huge, but because it feels intrusive and I don't want to feel like I have to shower, shave, and put on presentable clothes just to tool around on Facebook.

kenjackson 15y ago
A big reason why Skype wasn't big on MySpace was that it wasn't seamless to use -- at least from my vague recollection didn't it require users to download MySpaceIM? That alone makes it a non-starter for a lot of people. The other issue is that MySpace never reached this critical mass of users that Facebook has. I can see video chat being about Facebook, more than Skype over the next year. "Get on Facebook so we can video chat". Lastly, broadband penetration and bandwidth is that much better since 2007.
- guptaneil 15y ago
  Facebook still requires downloading a plugin to use video chat, so it has the same barrier to entry. I don't see being able to video chat from within my facebook.com window instead of in my Skype.app window as being a huge advantage. Case in point: I told my younger sister about Facebook's announcement today, and she didn't really care since she already had Skype to video chat with her friends. Then I told her about Google+'s Hangout feature and her eyes lit up. Video chatting is no longer a killer feature, but group video chatting is as long as Skype maintains premium pricing for group chats.
  - kenjackson 15y ago
    Facebook still requires downloading a plugin to use video chat, so it has the same barrier to entry. No, Facebook will install it automatically. With MySpace you had to do a separate download to get the MySpaceIM client. I told my younger sister about Facebook's announcement today, and she didn't really care since she already had Skype to video chat with her friends. I have Skype and Facebook both today too. I have like 8 addresses in my Skype book. I have about 200 friends in Facebook, which includes almost everyone I talk to. I don't think my setup is all that unusual.
    - mlinsey 15y ago
      I used Facebook video chat this morning, and it required a download that you then had to run in order to proceed.
      - kenjackson 15y ago
        So to be clear, you had to go to a seperate webpage, download the plugin, go back to Facebook, and start up the chat session? I want to make sure that the old MySpace experience current FB experience are the same.
        guptaneil 15y ago
        Nobody is claiming that Facebook's experience is as bad as MySpace. I'm sure it is much better, but that's irrelevant because Facebook isn't competing with MySpace. It's competing with Google+ and Skype, ironically.
        phereford 15y ago
        I don't think Skype is a competitor to Facebook at all. Facebook has had a good partnership with Microsoft for several years and have finally found a good social element that Microsoft brings to the table (Skype). Skype is great for video calls, Phone calls...and thats about it. Facebook does everything else.

kenjackson 15y ago

A big reason why Skype wasn't big on MySpace was that it wasn't seamless to use -- at least from my vague recollection didn't it require users to download MySpaceIM? That alone makes it a non-starter for a lot of people. The other issue is that MySpace never reached this critical mass of users that Facebook has. I can see video chat being about Facebook, more than Skype over the next year. "Get on Facebook so we can video chat". Lastly, broadband penetration and bandwidth is that much better since 2007.

guptaneil 15y ago
Facebook still requires downloading a plugin to use video chat, so it has the same barrier to entry. I don't see being able to video chat from within my facebook.com window instead of in my Skype.app window as being a huge advantage. Case in point: I told my younger sister about Facebook's announcement today, and she didn't really care since she already had Skype to video chat with her friends. Then I told her about Google+'s Hangout feature and her eyes lit up. Video chatting is no longer a killer feature, but group video chatting is as long as Skype maintains premium pricing for group chats.
- kenjackson 15y ago
  Facebook still requires downloading a plugin to use video chat, so it has the same barrier to entry. No, Facebook will install it automatically. With MySpace you had to do a separate download to get the MySpaceIM client. I told my younger sister about Facebook's announcement today, and she didn't really care since she already had Skype to video chat with her friends. I have Skype and Facebook both today too. I have like 8 addresses in my Skype book. I have about 200 friends in Facebook, which includes almost everyone I talk to. I don't think my setup is all that unusual.
  - mlinsey 15y ago
    I used Facebook video chat this morning, and it required a download that you then had to run in order to proceed.
    - kenjackson 15y ago
      So to be clear, you had to go to a seperate webpage, download the plugin, go back to Facebook, and start up the chat session? I want to make sure that the old MySpace experience current FB experience are the same.
      - guptaneil 15y ago
        Nobody is claiming that Facebook's experience is as bad as MySpace. I'm sure it is much better, but that's irrelevant because Facebook isn't competing with MySpace. It's competing with Google+ and Skype, ironically.
        phereford 15y ago
        I don't think Skype is a competitor to Facebook at all. Facebook has had a good partnership with Microsoft for several years and have finally found a good social element that Microsoft brings to the table (Skype). Skype is great for video calls, Phone calls...and thats about it. Facebook does everything else.