Skype: Voice IM- I'm On It (Sorta)

By leelefever on September 12, 2003 - 9:23am.

• Categories:
• telephony
• Comments: 1

I've been seeing stuff about Skype, so I had to check it out- and I'm pretty impressed.

It's like instant messaging, but with telephone quality voice. Instead of getting pinged with a "Gotta second?" IM, your computer will ring. You just need a headset and some friends who have also downloaded Skype to get started.

The folks behind KaZaA are behind Skype and it uses peer-to-peer technology. This makes the calls free.

I love watching new technologies that come along and upend an established industry like Napster/KazaA, TiVo, diamond technology (as reported in Wired). I'm hoping to see Skype represent a similar disruptive technology for the long-distance industry.