Skype Journal: Skype for Internet Explorer
July 7, 2005 08:19 AMBy Peter Henning, Skype Super User and Beta Tester. Bucharest, Romania
Following the review of Skype for Outlook earlier this week, we turn our attention to the second toolbar release.
The Skype IE toolbar is meant for quite a different task than the Outlook toolbar. Where the Outlook toolbar helps you make a link between Outlook contacts and Skype contacts, the IE toolbar helps you discover new contacts and phone numbers on web pages.
Left side of the toolbar
Right side of the toolbar
This feature helps you avoid a lot of copy-pasting because you can dial a phone number on a page directly from Internet Explorer. This adds a lot of convenience to calling via SkypeOut.
You have virtually nothing to set up for the toolbar to work, besides accepting it to connect to Skype. Usage is really simple.
By now most Skype users have heard or used the callto:// links. This is a very cool feature and makes it easy to call directly from the web browser. One thing we all have missed is something like a "chatto://" link. Skype for IE helps as it recognizes the callto:// links and, through Skype, lets you send a chat message too.
You have two dropdowns on the toolbar. The first called "My Contacts" for your Skype contacts so you can see their status and so that you can initiate a chat or a call from IE. The second called "Page Contacts" for the Skype names discovered on the current webpage.
One interesting feature is the possibility to send the current webpage URL automatically to a contact when selecting to chat with him/her from the toolbar. Of course this is optional and can be enabled from "Toolbar Options."
Changing status and search engine integration is also part of the package. You can choose between Google, Yahoo and Eniro.
I'd like to point out that it is still a BETA version and there are some known bugs, but nothing major.
- Dual monitors do not seem to be supported at the moment.
- Skype IE toolbar doesn't work on the secondary monitor.
- Also "My Contacts" needs longer time to load if you have a big contact list.
You should definitely try it and give feedback so it can become a useful tool for you.
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Comments (8)
Cool. I can't find where to download it.
Help please.
Posted by: Rick at July 7, 2005 12:49 PM
You can download the Skype Toolbar for Internet Explorer beta from the Share Skype Extras Gallery.
Posted by: Phil Wolff at July 7, 2005 1:13 PM
I realize it still covers the majority of the browser market, but they really oughta stop doing that stuff with only IE. If Skype's smart, we'll see a Firefox version soon, but until then, I'm staying away. In my mind, IE = bad.
-kevin
Posted by: Kevin Delaney at July 7, 2005 4:29 PM
Kevin++. Here's another plea for an Firefox version.
Posted by: Julian Bond at July 8, 2005 12:50 AM
I use Opera on my work computer, the kids Firefox on theirs ... so another plea for other browsers!
Posted by: Jean Mercier at July 8, 2005 8:13 AM
IE only? Great... I guess I'm not using it.
Outlook only as well? Same problem.
Make a Firefox or an Opera or a Safari... I don't think it's just me, but in this industry when you come out supporting IE first, it makes you look bad. I don't see how much of a drought it would be to make a cross browser variant? Be different, not like google.
In the end, I'll wait purchasing my skype in and out for my family and I to test until it happens. Thanks guys!
Posted by: Brady J. Frey at July 8, 2005 9:04 AM
Just for perspective. For every two Firefox visitors to this site there are 3 IE visitors. I'm a firefox user. I'm not surprised at Firefox's share of viewership.
Posted by: Stuart Henshall at July 8, 2005 9:41 AM
I usually check on influential bloggers and see what they use. From a PR and viral marketing perspective, you could do worse than to have your product in the hands of people who spread the word outside of your existing social network.
Posted by: Phil Wolff at July 9, 2005 12:10 AM