Mark Evans

Google Talks and Skype Opens Up

While Google Talk will certainly dominant the scene today, Skype hopes to get some attention on news it has opened its platform to developers that want to integrate Skype and its instant messaging functionality into their Web sites or applications. “By opening up its platform to the Web, Skype will instantly be creating the largest open instant messaging platform in the world,” the company said in a press release today. Skype has a reputation for being a savvy PR practitioner but touting its IM capabilities on the same day Google moves into the market is either brash or dumb. For what it means (and it doesn't mean much without financial or usage data), Skype says it now has more than 51 million users and its software has been downloaded more than 152 million times. Check out Andy Abramson's take on Skype's decision to open itself up to the world