Facebook Plus Skype Equal Juggernaut

Tweet

What do Skype and Facebook have in common? For starters, they both have more than 500 million registered users worldwide. So when word gets out that they might be announcing a partnership within the next couple of weeks,  we probably should pay attention. I will tell you this gets my attention, in fact it makes my head spin from the possibilities.

According to the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital, who broke the story, the announcement will come when Skype releases version 5.0 out of beta in October. Deep integration with Facebook will be a part of 5.0.

Word is that the two companies will be working together to offer seamless voice calls, video chat and, of course, instant messaging between their platforms.

If so and done right, this could be the bomb. This could be the thing Google has been trying to do and just can't get right to save its life (so far!).

Bottomline: both Google and Facebook aspire to be a communications platform. With Skype, Facebook could very likely leapfrong right over Google. As for Skype, it continues to be a killer product in search of a consumer base and ways to monetize in a more prolific way. Facebook clearly has a lot to offer Skype.

My vote: if this comes to pass, its a match made in heaven. Facebook is primarily viewed as social networking for the personal life (LinkedIn or Plaxo, for example, are more so for business).  However what business worth its salt doesn't have a presence on Facebook nowadays? Imagine businesses being able to talk or video conference with their "fans"? For those that network on Facebook, imagine taking the seamless next step to a job interview via video chat, or a far-flung team of colleagues using Facebook to take a quick meeting.

As we say in Texas, hide in the weeds and watch for this one.

 Feel free to follow me on Twitter @oricchio

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio