Skypeweb goes live and is already infecting websites. Take a look at how it works on share.skype.com. What a difference presence can make to a blog. The Skype site requires you to log in with your Skype ID to leave a comment. That also gives Skype the immediate benefit of knowing who's checked in. As you will see from this picture it also gives them the opportunity to link to the commenters presence and if you click on the icon the profile information is exposed. That's pretty neat.

Note I blogged back in June 2005 about "The Future of Blog Comments". Some of this is now coming to pass. See also cocomment. So Skype, when can I add this feature to Skype Journal?

SkypeWeb is now officially available. It is supported in the latest release of Skype for Windows. To activate SkypeWeb, you need to turn it on. You can get your own Skype button here.

Skype Blogs: SkypeWeb is now available

Networking sites are already incorporating it. There is no cost to SkypeWeb and it is easy to implement. See the Skype Developer Blog for more instructions.

This is the Skype PR blurb and for another perspective the Bebo press release is contained below.

SKYPE AND BEBO JOIN FORCES TO DELIVER FREE IM, VOICE AND VIDEO CALLS TO STUDENTS WORLDWIDE

Bebo Launches Integrated SkypeWeb Capability for
Free Member Presence Detection, Internet Chat and Video Calling

San Jose, Calif. and San Francisco, Calif. - Feb. 9 - Skype, the global Internet communications company, and Bebo, the next generation high school and college social network, today announced an agreement to integrate SkypeWeb into the Bebo Web site as a free, co-branded Internet calling service. The Bebo-Skype Web service will provide Beboers worldwide with instant messaging (IM), voice and video calling and presence detection, which allows them to see other Beboers' online status.

"As the largest social networking site in the UK and Ireland, and one of the largest in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, we are in a unique position to enable high school and college students worldwide to easily connect, learn more about each other and keep in touch - all without breaking the bank," said Jim Scheinman, Vice President of Business Development and Sales at Bebo. "Since instant messaging, voice and video chat have long been top requested features by Beboers, we believe this new offering is a perfect fit. Bebo and Skype share a vision for simple, high-quality services that allow people to stay in touch and express themselves online."

With more than 22 million registered Beboers worldwide, Bebo's social network enables students to stay in touch with their friends and family, find long lost friends and meet new people. In addition to the Bebo-Skype Web service, members enjoy a variety of fun and helpful online applications that make it easy to remember birthdays, share photos & videos, blog, Bebo mail, discover new music and other interests and just hang out.

SkypeWeb allows people to see Skype users' online status and call or chat with them from any Web site and to Skype people from each site with the simple click of a mouse. More than 50 Web sites have integrated SkypeWeb to allow users to let others know when they are free and make it easy to reach them through Skype.

Available in 27 languages, Skype is used by people in almost every country around the world, and Skyping has become a global phenomenon. The latest version of the software has further simplified the Skype interface, making it even easier for people to see and speak with their family, friends and colleagues.

"At Skype, our goal is to help people build and sustain relationships online," said Saul Klein, vice president of global marketing for Skype. "SkypeWeb, launched today, is the evolution of this philosophy. Working with industry leaders like Bebo allows us to extend the reach of that vision, and we look forward to a long and productive relationship."

About Bebo
Bebo is the next generation social network that enables high school and college students to stay in touch with their friends, find long lost friends and meet new people. Officially launched in July 2005, in just 7 months, the social network has more than 22 million registered members viewing over 700 million monthly page views. The privately-held company is operated by an experienced management team in San Francisco, Calif. The CEO and founder launched one of the first social networking sites, Ringo.com which he later sold to Tickle (now part of Monster), and Bebo was recently joined by the former head of business development at Friendster. In addition, the Bebo.com team runs another word of mouth marketing site, BirthdayAlarm.com, which has 40 million members. For more information, visit www.bebo.com or email press@bebo.com.

About Skype
Skype is the world's fastest-growing Internet communication offering, allowing people everywhere to make unlimited voice and video communication for free. Skype is available in 27 languages and is used in almost every country around the world. Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings such as making and receiving calls to and from landline and mobile phones, as well as voicemail and call forwarding. Skype also has relationships with a growing network of hardware and software providers. Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY). To learn more visit skype.com.

Skype is not a telephony replacement service and cannot be used for emergency calling.

CONTACTS:
Jim Scheinman
Bebo
press@bebo.com
415-581-0700
Skype: jscheinman

Syreeta Mussante
Sparkpr for Skype
syreeta@sparkpr.com
415-321-1865
Skype: syreetam

Do you want to add SkypeWeb presence status to your blog feed? Now you can. With the new version released today for Windows (2.0.79) bloggers can now program their RSS feeds to reflect their presence information. With many bloggers reading posts just in newreaders providing presence information there will increase your accessability. I'll upgrade the Skype Journal feeds soon. Similarly companies like Bloglines or Feedster may want to consider returning feed results where the bloggers status is online. Who will do it first?

Call enable RSS feed with SkypeWeb (see sample)

To call enable a RSS feed with SkypeWeb you need to add the following lines to your RSS feed:


skype:bluedude?call
http://mystatus.skype.com/bluedude

Put this within the node and just below all other channel attributes. To show your status you need to replace the name bluedude with your Skype ID. SkypeWeb is not released yet so you can only test it with my name. Skype enable RSS and Podcast feeds |

SkypeWeb quietly went live today for those that download the laterst Windows version 2.0.79. Still this quiet launch still has bugs. I wrote about my initial reservations in this post. For others you may just ask what the big deal is. Many will see this as catch up. Other Instant Messaging Services have enabled presence icons on websites for years. So why the frustration over presence now? The simple answer is commerce. I know of more than one Networking Site that is ready to go and add in Skype presence (we have, it is easy) however, with their large number of Skypers they are afraid most users would display a "?" or "Not Telling" status. They are also concerned about accuracy.

The button that means it is not ready for prime time.

Not Telling! A poor attempt at humor. Why is my status a "?" My status is not in question. In fact it is unclear what Skype is declaring to the world. For "Not Telling" is returned for both Skypers and nonSkypers. I'm surprised that nonSkypers don't return a 404 message. What it should mean is I've chosen not to enable it. The icon should just be a blue Skype. The larger one should communicate "buddies only". Similarly Skype could return a "not on Skype" button for non Skypers.

Adding Skype presence to your Site. This is an illustration of the buttons you can use.

My status
Bill's status
Skype VP
Skype Manager
Skype Boss

Status Accuracy: Networking Sites are also concerned about "status" accuracy. When you log off your last known status stays up. There is no notification to SkypeWeb that I'm going offline before my my system goes into hibernation. Thus without action by the user my last known status is broadcast. I could appear to be online all night. Thus we have a reliability issue. When I wrote this the status for two of the Skype employees was incorrectly shown. The third one is apparently not participating. That level of accuracy is unacceptable.

I know Skype has been told about these issues. They were reported to the SkypeWeb forum. So why launch a product that isn't ready for prime time? Is this to do with performance and release targets set in the Ebay deal? If so there is a performance system in place that is compomising both the brand values "innovative communications product", while driving the launch of features that are not ready for market. The net net is Skype is now turning out "me too" applications rather than pushing the innovation boundaries. Where does this push the innovation boundary?

Example:
1. Can I share that I am on mobile? I can with my buddies. Can I do it via SkypeWeb? Not at the moment. Why not? It already exists as a presence icon. Would this help solve the "hibernation" problem? No other IM system can do this. Thus it would have created added value for some users.

2. Enabling presence at certain times. Or the capability to set a default. Eg "Invisible" displays as "offline". I actually have (at least) three states that should be allowed. One is the "blue Skype" I want to indicate that I don't share my presence information or am not currently (eg. on vacation - could be an additional one). Second is I want to share presence only with my buddies but not globally. Thus offline is displayed externally with current status to my buddies only. Disabling my client provides the "?" that is not acceptable. The toggle for this form of presence should selective and reside next to the current "change status" toggle. In addition this secondary info should enable a ZIP code status. So now Skype can broadcast a local element with the presence/profile information. Then networking sites can provide some simple location networking too.

3. If we have mystatus.skype.com/ and we have http://skype:stuart_henshall?userinfo then why can't that info be mapped to http://myprofile.skype.com/stuart_henshall which includes my presence when it has been enabled? Add in location. Then we actually have the JyveCard capability option that was proposed ages ago. We also have a great mashup opportunity. One difference is that Skype would have to serve that. Why not do that for all SkypeOut account holders as an option?

Maybe the "bugs" explain why it went live today without any "noise". I don't quite get what's happened to Skype's great storytelling "spin". They used to be really good at this. I think they must miss Kelly Larabee. I know I'll get flack for being critical yet again. The issue is "supporters" are waiting and wanting a great Skype presence system. It seems they will have to wait some more time yet.

01.02.2006 version 2.0.0.79 Change Log

* feature: Web status
* bugfix: Dialog windows now use background colors from Windows Scheme
* bugfix: Accessibility: Contact mood text not in MSAA
* bugfix: Can not add a PSTN contact from History
* bugfix: Missing group name when hiding group
* bugfix: Contactlist: sort order does not follow local collation order

• Knowing Skype and its competitors may earn you the Product Manager – Mobile Instant Messaging job at Verizon.
• VoIP News: Phil Wolff Talks Skypenomics at the O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference includes a few highlights.
• YASP (Yet another soft phone): voipstunt.
• Chinagate-Skype, for the Chinese diaspora. Jaanus' post on the new portal partnership. Smart alliance; helping families and commerce that cross the globe stay connected.
• BT's Broadband Voice outage for a few hours this week. What uptime constitutes phone replacement?
• Nuvvo shows SkypeWeb presence for teachers and students in their learning community. Now they're waiting for SkypeWeb to be rolled into an update of Skype 2.0.
• Warner Music Group (WMG) will sell ringtones through Skype. Skype still doesn't offer the ability to tailor ringtones to a caller, a group of callers, or to the time of day/day of week. So I don't know how the whole ringtone thing is. In addition, nearly all Skypers use PCs, so they get visual cues, making ringtones less useful. For the 40% of us who use Skype in the workplace, "Like a Virgin" is sure to make us popular among our colleagues. This follows Warner's general model for licensing music samples to mobile carriers. Are these licensed to all Skype users or just to those living in countries where copyright is enforceable?

Skype is about to release SkypeWeb ("Hi, world, I'm on Skype!" on your blog) as a hosted web service. Right now it will just catch up with the neighbors (AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN all have presence services). This will be free.

That's stage 1 as I see it. Wide-open public presence.

Stage 2 adds a range of personal controls.

It starts with faceted presence. That's when I have more than one identity: "Phil Wolff, Editor of Skype Journal", "Member of the Wolff family", "student in Piedmont Community College Monday night Mandarin 1 class". Each identity's presence is customized for each requestor of that presence. Members of my bowling team can know I'm out of town. My family can always reach me. My colleagues can see me during office hours. SkypeWeb hides my cell phone from most of my clients but my boss and my big customers can always see it. Cheaper than voice mail and priced like caller ID or an unlisted phone number.

Stage 3 is where the money comes in. Shrink-wrap the SkypeWeb presence server. Let enterprises run and manage their own servers, inside the intranet, in their DMZs. CIOs should be integrating finely tuned presence into CRM apps, collaboration toolkits, HR/directory services, phone systems, etc. Licence to online markets (like Microsoft Live Expo, Craigslist, Amazon) who encourage conversation among like-minded buyers and sellers.

The eBay impact: Skype presence becomes a competitive advantage among sellers, especially for complex goods and always for billable services.

Developer ecosystem impact: This can become good for the Skype developer community, integrating faceted presence with other systems. For example, creating collective presence where quorums trigger calls and call negotiation where caller attributes, constraints, goals, and priorities inform schedules.

This depends on:

• Continued investment in SkypeWeb,
• Effectively communicating their commitment to platforming SkypeWeb, and
• Leading (or at least responding) to the other companies entering the presence space.

I'm with Stuart in being disappointed that SkypeWeb was launched with such a minimal feature set and no clear business drivers. But I'm hopeful and eager for more.

Will the SixApart TypePad hosted blogging service integrate SkypeWeb into their comments system when Skype finally releases their extended presence solution? I've blogged the benefits previously of integrating a Skype identity component with blog comments. Similarly, by creating a www.CommentPings.com to register blog comments, commenters would no longer lose the networking value of their comments as they become searchable. Skype-to-comments would also create the opportunity to introduce solutions for audio comments etc.

SkypeWeb is a new feature of Skype 2.0 that allows Skype users to display their Skype online status on a Web page, email, blog, any other HTML enabled content or any other Internet-enabled application.
 - Skype Developer Zone Blog!

Could SixApart abandon TypeKey in favor of Skype user authentication? Short term, that is probably a longshot. However, this blog would adopt "skype names" as an authentication approach in an instant. It would improve the opportunity for dialogue and offer the opportunity for multichats on any post to be opened (for those that "tick" add me to the multi-chat discussion on this post).

We know there have been discussions between both parties, while recently Skype moved their blogs to SixApart's MovableType platform. It continues to use Skype as its log-in authentication for commenters. Adding Skype authentication adds value. There are some management issues... like authentication to your Skype client rather than the Skype server that would be required.

Typepad and the blogger would get both the advantage of a profile and a more personalized way to arrange contact. It would also provide more opportunities for "commenters" on the same post or blog to introduce themselves. Something current systems with hidden e-mail addresses don't allow.

SkypeWeb, announced last year, will be launched officially in a few weeks. For now you can sign up for the beta at the Skype Developer Blog which will give you access to basic details.

That's enough speculation for tonight.

I'm reading the SkypeWeb Partner white paper with a jaundiced yawn. There is simply nothing new here. Oh some language tweaks provide localization for the display language. Beyond that nothing. Nothing we, the Jyve guys and others didn't talk about and begin prototyping almost two years ago.

Skype has chosen to centralize delivery of presence rather than providing a presence server on every desktop. This means you can't be selective with sharing your presence information while enabling presence, and thus makes it availabe to all. At the moment it appears to refresh quickly with a status change. So, if you know my Skype ID and I have enabled my presence info, you can check my status at anytime. You can also, without my authorization, put it on your webpage.

My status Skype VP Skype Manager Skype Boss

Note: Skype doesn't yet send an accurate status when logging off or when closed down. There is also no status for Call Forward active (which may or maynot be wanted).

There is nothing (bar decency) to stop anyone looking up every Skype employee and creating an online/offline availablity monitor. Of course such a directory set to refresh every few minutes may along with others put some strain on the presence system. The point is, when you put your presence information out there using Skype's approach, you have lost control of it. You have given it away free to be used by anyone. That's a lost economic opportunity. My presence, like my attention, is valuable and Skype's solution makes a mockery of it. Companies will just use this as another reason to source another solution.

Thus Skype has given away the opportunity to create a permission based presence system and also given up an income earning opportunity. Concurrently with the launch of SkypeWeb, Skype has failed to develop a workable channel for sharing temporary presence and access.

Sharing presence via SkypeWeb is very different to sharing presence with a few trusted sites. Example. I want to share my presence with my favorite social network, a business network, at work and perhaps in a familiy directory. There is no reason I should enable a call center to search Skype, check status and then ring me. Except that is exactly what is now available. Examples above presenting Skype employees online status. If they don't like it the only thing they can do is stop sharing.

To say it yet another way, Skype has missed yet another opportunity to share presence in a way that moves the game forward. As access to it is free rather than restricted, Skype doesn't act as an agent or broker my presence. I can't instruct Skype to only share my presence with www.skypejounnal.com etc. As a result Skype presence availablity won't help with aliases or with limited sharing of my presence and attention data.

If I'm missing something let me know.

The long awaited Skype Web feature is close; for some like Saul Klein the Skype VP of marketing it is here. My Skype buddy and blogger Anders Jacobsen in London brought me this news which he got from Saul's blog.

It just goes to show if you want insight to what's happening in Skypeland the place to find the best info is not share.skype but rather in personal blogs by Skype Staffers. The higher up the totem pole the bigger the leak.

Clicking on the icon will opens a Chat Window so you can send Saul an instant message.

If you view the "source" for Saul's page you will see how it all works. And you will see it points to http://mystatus.skype.com/saulklein

Thanks for the update Saul. Now tell us when it will be available for the rest of us.

The rumor of Google Talk appears to be rattling the cage at Skype and will shake some egos. This post reflects on Skype's latest PR release which opens the gates on new initiatives. Are they in response to Google Talk? I wrote this prior to testing out Google Talk this evening. I'll let you be the judge.

Party time at Skype over the next week.

...is preparing to mark its second anniversary next week by opening up its platform to anyone who wants to integrate Skype's presence and instant messaging services into their website or application. By opening up Skypes platform to the web, it will now be simple for anyone to connect to Skypes fast growing member base,.... Skype Anniversary Press Release

Underlying the fluff we find two new initiatives that indicate Skype is testing a bolder (or maybe reckless if the news is too premature) strategic direction. Certainly these components support Lenn Pryor's desire to build a broader ecosystem around Skype.

SkypeWeb: Creating a web of availability.

Skype will launch a web presence server solution under the name SkypeWeb. This will be supported in a new client release (we don't know when) which will broadcast your presence data via preferences in the client. Apparently a new bit of code in the P2P network will ping status updates every five second to a presence server. Presence information will be availabie in the form of an ATOM feed which will enable presence updates and also enable contact lists. All list detail is said to be controlled by the user. Thus the Atom feed will push presence data direct from the Skype client enabling contact lists for a circle of friends. The general idea space is good. Details? Client? We don't know yet.

SkypeNet: Stripped down client extends Developer opportunities:

Skype will open up presence and IM functionality to the whole world under the name SkypeNet. It's unknown whether this will include file sharing. SkypeNet is made up of SkypeLite clients --- a headless Skype client, without user interface, that can be integrated into any application. This should let you build Skype servers and web services. It should help Skype become enabled in programs like Trillian, make Skype more interesting for online game publishers, and create opportunities for business applications that need to scale. This is a huge gap in their architecture and, depending on execution, SkypeNet may fill it.

Some of the PR announcement is fluff. Skype has done a tremendous job of building and growing a software platform. Still, the combination of big deal buyers (Murdoch billions) and bragging on registered names (51 million) doesn't sit well with me. It hides the plain truths. Skype at two is still an upstart minnow. It's achieved much. Year One saw the launch of P2P telephony that just worked and free conference caling. Together these reinvented telephony. In Year Two we have SkypeOut, SkypeIn and the SkypeAPI and Skypers who want to do more with Skype. Today Skype has a global following in the 10's of millions talking for billions of minutes.

The industry clearly needs some metrics. However apples and oranges examples isn't the way to do it.

Skype's minutes served are currently flat. Active users are stalled. Releases with substantial features - voice recording, - call forwarding, work groups, contact lists, all seem to be coming along very slowly.

What is slow? From a developer's perspective progress may be very fast. However, from a Skype user point of view, many are now using Skype as a super telephone replacement, often for mobiles, so we expect all sorts of complex new features to be available. They are standard features on other systems. Now Skype adds these two initiatives. Expectations for Skype's next major client release are growing. We want it all and yet, two years after Skype first launched, I still can't do the things with it I dreamed I would like to be able to do.

So, Skype, please don't put your credibiltiy on the line with stretch announcements. The meme is still spreading because Skype is inherently good when I can talk to one or more for free. However, nothing kills a meme faster than the smell of desparation or an empty store. Telling me about presence servers and stripped clients is not the same as delivering them to me. The developer community has provided many gifts. I just hope when you blow out the two candles this week our wishes come true.