In a move that appears to take a shot at Google, Facebook announced on Wednesday that they have teamed up with Skype to bring video calling to Facebook users. This news comes more than a week after Google launched its beta version of Google+, its attempt to directly compete with Facebook.
“The video calling is so great and it’s so easy,” said Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. “Your least-technical friend is going to be able to get online with video chat and get connected. You’ll connect with your friends on the social network that already has all your friends.”
That last sentence from Zuckerberg takes a shot at Google, which has struggled to impress most users.
With Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion (£5.3 billion), it appears that Facebook, Microsoft and Skype are going to take on the tech giant Google.
“For those of us who have been working on this, it’s particularly exciting to bring video calling to over 750 million people,” said Facebook engineer Philip Su in a Facebook post. He added, “We’re making this available in over 70 different languages, so friends can stay in touch all over the world.”
Unlike Google+’s video calling features, the service of Facebook will not support a conversation between three or more people.
Before you can use Facebook’s video chat, you are required to download a browser add-on. The feature will be rolled out to all users over the next few weeks, but you can add it now by going to its video calling page.
via: IT World
