Facebook fired the latest salvo against Google yesterday when it announced a partnership with Skype to allow its users to make Skype video calls on the social network site.
The latest move by the Facebook marks the growing rivalry between the two internet giants in online social networking.
Earlier last week, Google unveiled its own social network, Google+ that includes a video calling feature called Google Hangouts.
Skype says the partnership with Facebook “makes fantastic business sense for Skype and gives us an unprecedented opportunity to offer Skype’s voice and video calling products to more than 750 million active users on Facebook.”
While Google Hangouts supports group video chats, Facebook’s Skype-powered Video Calling, which will be rolled out to users over the next few weeks, only allows one-on-one chatting.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg hinted during the annoucement that multi-party calling could be available in future, though he noted that most video chats take place between two people, for now.
Besides Facebook and Skype, Microsoft, which is set to acquire Skype for US$8.5 billion, also stands to gain from this partnership.
By boosting usage of Skype among Facebook users, Microsoft could be paving the ground for adoption of products sporting Skype’s technology.
If you can’t wait to try out Facebook Video Calling, visit Facebook Videocall to give it a shot.
Video calls can be initiated directly from the Facebook Chat box. Or, click on a friend’s profile and if they are online, a Call button appears at the top right of the profile page. You can also leave video messages if calls are not answered.
