The latest Skype profiles have some information on them that won't make everyone happy. With the upgrade to 1.4 Skype shows your buddies their "friends" count. So if you look up my profile you will find I have 289 currently. Some of you may want to opt out and not share this data. By contrast I think it is really a very exciting development. It also provides some new opportunities down the road.

I'd infer that when we start sharing buddy counts we also share an element of reputation. In the future you may only take calls from Skypers who have more than 25 people on their list. Otherwise they have to ask for an authorisation. You could probably choose the number. That adds an additonal hurdle for spammers. Similarly if I am getting a call from someone with a few hundred contacts they are more likely to be genuine. I also know that they are more likely to be able to bridge someone else into our conversation. Example in a dating environment, who you are talking to may be the matchmaker.

It's easy to see Skype is beginning to experiment with statistics (how many buddies) and later we will get info like how many buddies we each have online and the number we have in common. Some may even want to progressively expose that information. Oh, it also means that Skype will in one form or another invade the social and business networking space. When or if we finally get contact grouping it will be interesting to see... if I create a new group --- what new options that may bring in the Skype API. Will those groups names be exposed? I certainly hope so. It would create some new value.