Web video chat: Google Hangouts vs Facebook Skype
July 07, 2011 | Author: Adam Levine
A great battle between Google and Skype (Microsoft) for the video calling market continues on a new platform - the Social Web. Last week Google launched (in Beta) their social network Google + and one of it's features is the group video chat Hangouts. And yesterday the built-in Skype-based video chat appeared in Facebook. Both video chat apps work directly in browser, which signals about the transition of video calling applications to web-technologies (although both apps require the installation of a small browser plug-in).
Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts allows to organize video calls for up to 10 simultaneous participants, and it's free. The main video stream is automatically switched depending on who is talking at the moment. Unlike Skype, Google Hangouts uses open technologies and third-party applications and web services will soon be able to "participate" in the video calls. Obviously, Google Hangouts soon will appear in Google Apps, because it's a great tool for business meetings.
Facebook/Skype chat
Facebook's Skype video chat allows you to make only one-to-one video calls. Because Skype is making money on group video calls. Everything is simple with this video chat. On your friend profile you press the Video button and launch the video chat (without installing Skype client and without entering your Skype login). But if you multiply this simplicity on 750 million Facebook users, it becomes clear that Skype has made a huge step forward.
See also: Top 10 Business Messaging platforms