Skype Launches Presence Engine

Peer-to-peer VoIP provider Skype has announced SkypeWeb, a Web presence feature that allows people to see Skype users online status and chat with them from any Web site. Web administrators also can enable all site visitors to talk for free over the Internet.

Users can make their Skype status available on the Web by opting in using the tools menu on their Skype service, then creating a presence button by copying and pasting a few lines of HTML and script from www.skype.com/share/buttons/.

With just a few simple steps we were able to incorporate SkypeWeb into our AppExchange platform, says Adam Gross, vice president, developer marketing, salesforce.com. In addition to free Skype voice calls, the SkypeWeb presence feature gives our subscribers the ability to know when their contacts and colleagues are available and online all directly from within Salesforce.”

More than 50 Web sites, including Hutchinson Global Communications, Jubii.dk, nuvvo.com and Pacific Internet, have integrated SkypeWeb to allow users to let others know when they’re free. Other use cases include:

Bebo, the largest social networking site in the U.K. and Ireland and one of the fastest-growing in the United States with more than 22 million members, has integrated SkypeWeb to enable all Beboers to IM, voice and video chat

DBA.DK (Den Blå Avis), a Danish classifieds portal, is using SkypeWeb to show the Skype status of people who have posted classified ads

Lunarstorm, a Swedish/U.K. community Web site with 1.6 billion monthly page views, is integrating SkypeWeb to allow users to display Skype name and status in profiles

Onet.pl, Poland’s top Internet portal, offers SkypeWeb to enable more than 1 million bloggers and Webmasters to show their status

Six Apart is enabling bloggers to show their Skype status anywhere on the Web

TOM.com is using SkypeWeb in its customer service offering to display Skype user presence information for its customer service representatives

vBulletin provides instant Skype status integration for the Internet’s most widely used forum software

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