Just when you thought Facebook was on stage four of the five-stages of the social network life cyle (RIP Blackplanet, College Club, and Myspace), ol’ Zuck had a trick up his sleeve to further delay the inevitable.  *Recently it was announced that Skype will be integrated into Facebook, allowing users to make video calls to their friends.

*This move by Facebook was a direct move to counter the announcement of Google Plus.  Google Plus is Google’s new social networking product, which has been getting pretty good reviews even though it hasn’t been officially released yet.

What does this mean?  Video calls and chats will become more common than voice calls.  We’re officially in the age of The Jetsons.  Now that we’ve arrived, what are some ways that video chatting can contribute to the greater good (or evil)?

1)     Long distance relationships – People have already been using Skype, but Facebook has 750 million users.  With the ability to video chat on a whim, an extra 6 months to a year can easily be added to the expiration date of a long distance relationship.

2)     Online dating – It’s no secret that people use Facebook to hook up.  Now, you can actually talk to someone face-to-face before ever deciding to meet up.  By next year, the term, “virtual first date,” will be heard and used everywhere.

3)     Cheating – There is a dark side to the force.  Nuclear energy can be used for a lot of good things.  It can also be used to annihilate entire cities in the form of a missile.  With that said, please believe that people are going to use video chatting to cheat and creep around on their significant others.

4)     Employment – More and more companies are using social networking to market, recruit, and hire new employees.  Looking to relocate to a job in another state?  No problem.  We can interview you via video and still have the same experience as sitting face-to-face.  Just don’t stand up and let us know you’ve been sitting in your draws the whole time.

5)     Fan Interactions – Celebs could hold contests where the lucky fan could win the opportunity to chat face-to-face with their favorite celebs.  This could definitely be a good marketing tool to promote a movie, album, single, book, etc.

What are some other ways that video chatting on Facebook could help or hurt?

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/10/yes-microsoft-is-buying-skype/?hpt=T2

Microsoft is about to buy Skype for $8.5 billion.  What changes could we see?

- Skype incorporated into the Kinect, Xbox 360, and future gaming consoles

- Windows phones will have the potential advantage in mobile video chat

- MS products such as Office & Lync will have better options for video chatting and conferencing

So apparently Skype will be coming to a flat-screen near you:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/02/skype.on.tv.videophone/index.html

From the article:

“The common use of videophones could happen through three technologies that separately aren’t exactly considered bleeding edge today: high-speed Internet, a television, and Skype. Samsung says it will put the VoIP calling service Skype as an application on its televisions, allowing phone calls to be made on camera right from a couch, just like Jane Jetson talking into her TV set. The Samsung Skype-enabled TV follows similar announcements from Panasonic and LG at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

The models will range from to $1,200 to $2,000 for Panasonic’s set. Samsung and LG have not yet announced how much they will charge.

The Skype on TV application should work similarly on all three models, which in turn should closely mimic the version of the application that many people use to make free PC to PC calls, or for a fee, PC to landline.”

The same consulting team that worked with the Geek Squad/Best Buy on the idea of coming to your home to “install” your PS3 or Xbox360 and “set up your wi-fi” must have came up with this bull…

Why?

If you have a flat screen TV and a laptop, you can make video calls on your TV with an HDMI cable and an internet connection. 

I suppose there really is a market out there for idiots, posers who buy the latest thing b/c it’s the latest thing, and lazy people.