The blogosphere is abuzz today with rumors that both Google and Facebook are eyeing Skype for either an outright acquisition or some type of joint venture. For my book, a Facebook-Skype hook up looks the more interesting.
Think of the possibilities of integrating Skype into Facebook. We’ve already seen early attempts at voice functionality for Facebook. If Facebook does pull the trigger on some type of Skype transaction, they may trump all of the third party attempts to integrate voice features into the 600 million member strong Facebook, and introduce many interesting voice applications across the platform.
Google on the other hand is trying to ensure they don’t miss the social media boat, and may see losing Skype to Facebook as yet another mis-step. They of course have their own somewhat competing products to Skype, including Google Voice.
Google Voice still uses underlying telecom carriers and acts more like a voice application for existing telecom services. Could a Skype hook up change that and make Skype the underlying carrier for Google Voice? It could then be a potential replacement voice product, rather than a complementary application.
Of course all of this is just conjecture based on an unconfirmed rumor. But it sure is fun to talk about.
