As the war for Internet supremacy rages on, Facebook’s newest weapon further indicates a growing alliance with Microsoft.
Skype, currently awaiting final approval of a buyout by Microsoft, and Facebook announced at a press conference last Wednesday that directly supported Skype video chat conferencing was launched for use on the Facebook social network.
Video chat on Facebook was previously only available through third party applications not supported or endorsed by Facebook.
The implemented changes allow users to video chat on Facebook with support being tied in directly to the existing chat network on the site, intended to make video chatting a simple extension of Facebook chat.
“We built it right into chat, so all your conversations start from the same place,” stated Phillips Su, an engineer on the Facebook team, in a post on the official Facebook blog. “To call your friend, just click the video call button at the top of your chat window.”
In its current form only the one-on-one video chat Su described is available, with neither Facebook nor Skype announcing any plans to expand to a group chat function in the future.
The feature has drawn immediate comparisons to the Hangout video chat feature on the recently launched Google+ social network, which allows multiple users to video chat at the same time.
When presented this comparison during the press conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shrugged it off.
“As far as the Google stuff goes, I’m not going to say a lot,” responded Zuckerberg. “Facebook’s job is to stay focused.”
Little doubt remained however that the move was a strategic partnership between Microsoft and Facebook to take on their mutual rival Google.
Microsoft CEO Larry Balmer and Skype CEO Tony Bates discussed the potential partnership when Microsoft first announced it was moving to purchase Skype in May.
“The day we announced, we definitely came to see Mark [Zuckerberg],” Bates stated during the press conference. “It was for both of us, Steve and I, the most important strategic relationship.”
The announcement is the latest development in an ongoing relationship between Facebook and Microsoft that has often directly targeted Google.
In May–the same month as the announcement concerning Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Skype–Microsoft also announced that it had begun to incorporate recommendations made by Facebook friends of users into searches on their Bing search engine.
The move was an attempt by Microsoft to capitalize on the large user base of Facebook to draw users away from Google’s popular search engine.
Facebook meanwhile has benefitted financially from its partnership with Microsoft, specifically in the realm of advertising.
Microsoft provides search advertising to Facebook, accounting for a large stream of revenue for Facebook.
In addition Microsoft bought enough shares of Facebook in 2007 that it now owns approximately 1.6 percent of the company, according to a report by CNET.com.
Time will tell what role this latest development will have on the larger war between these technology giants but Mark Zuckerberg indicated that Facebook is not ready to rest on its laurels.
“We’re in the process of figuring out what we want to do next,” emphasized Zuckerberg.
