New York — Over the weekend, rumors are swirling around as to what might be taken as a reaction to Google integrating their competing Google Voice VoIP service directly into GMail, popular VoIP provider Skype is becoming more user friendly and could be gearing up to come up with a web-based voice service in the near future, possibly one that integrates video and chat services too.
Skype may be months away from launching web-based service that will allow users to use browser plugins rather than a dedicated client as was done in the past. According to job postings on Skype’s website, the company is looking to form a team that will build an infrastructure capable of supporting hundreds of millions of users, a product which will deliver voice, video, chat and presence to the Internet and enable radically new Skype applications.
According to Techcrunch quoting a source knowledgeable with the matter said that Skype will not use a full HTML5 solution and will follow Google’s footsteps in proposing a plugin-based solution at least for a foreseeable future. It also stated that the VoIP giant may be in touch with Linkedin for a possible integration, which would be the third social networking website to partner with Skype after Myspace and Facebook.
Interestingly, there are also rumors indicating that Skype is encouraging partners and affiliates to “drive” customers towards premium features on which they can get a cut that includes SMS and advanced telephony features on top of its current set of options currently available. The scope of this action is quite enormous. Skype is reportedly hiring 350 new employees to head the initiative. Clearly, Skype sees this as the future, and not an offshoot, of their service.
The big advantage of a cloud-based VoIP service running on Skype technology is not just to appeal to the casual user and help obviate some of Google’s lead — Surely, such a move will put Skype in direct competition with Google and may even attract some interest from Cisco who may view Skype as an attractive acquisition with its 500 milliion users worldwide.
Moreover, the VoIP provider is also rumored to be looking to get itself into the enterprise game too, which would cater as a juicy piece of pie and it will set the company up for a mouth-watering clash with Google Voice, especially since we remember that Google Voice has been integrated into Gmail a while back. Additionally, it also makes Skype a more viable option for enterprise customers, particularly if Skype is able to partner with a suitable company — Microsoft, say, rather than Facebook.