Skype’s Dark Secrets Nope, this in’t a sponsored post where I am paid to write good things about the services or products I’ve tried! I’ve many friends using Skype (an “Instant Messenger” or “IM”). [IMer = refers to people using Instant Messengers.] I’ve used Skype a few times too over the last few years. In fact, Skype was the first IM that Youth Challenge used to communicate with its volunteers many years back. Skype users have their own profile pages and so do Yahooligans or MSNers (or AOLers). But I prefer Yahoo IM to Skype IM. Why?
1. With Skype, you can add easily find and people to your IM contact lists by using keywords, but it would be of little use if the contacts have chosen to block messages from you.
Yahoo IM does not allow you to find people via keywords (can be viewed as a disadvantage depending on how you see it). Instead, Yahoo IM allows you to find people in niche rooms – rooms according to interests/hobbies, etc. In a way, this forces people to communicate LIVE first before giving out other information that helps IMers to connect via IM.
2. Users of both Skype and yahoo IMers can be exposed to your business or personal blog. If you’re using Yahoo IM and are also a part of Yahoo’s Ask & Answer Community, your blog details can be optionally added to your Yahoo profile page – which fits much much more info or self-introduction than what’s allowed in a Skype Avatar Bubble.
3. There’s no “cross-compatibilities” with Skype. For example, if you use Skype, you can’t IM with someone who’s using MSN IM for example. A Skype IMer can only connect with another Skype IMer.
4. Perhaps Skype’s biggest limitation is with the fact that Skype’s a “true IM”; you can’t leave “offline” messages for someone who’s not online. But there’s no such limitation if you’re using Yahoo, MSN and AOL Instant Messenger.
With an Yahoo IM, I am able to IM with those who are using MSN or AOL IM. This gives the other Instant Messengers ‘one up’ above Skype, even if I am not able to share pictures with a non-Yahoo IMer.
The irony is, Yahoo IM is owned by….Skype! And there’s talk that Gtalk (owned by Google) will also be integrated with Skype.
P.S. Skype is largely popular because it can be integrated with email clients like MS Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird, with services like Jetnumbers virtual number service, etc.
Other things I didn’t know about Skype (the following are not necessarily my opinions but simply statistics and facts gathered from other websites):
Comparison of Skype with conventional Business VoIP services
Skype behaving like a SuperNode and eats up Bandwidth of your internet service-provider
Commercial report by ConsumerSearch.com (not free)
Skypes’ Legal Woes
Gtalk video gives much better quality than Skype video although Skype has better audio quality. (Ref: Veetrag.net)
Concerning video conferencing, applications like ooVoo, TokBox and the very popular Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger have better standards than Skype.
Yeigo and Fring, for example, do great with mobile phones, and have brought VoIP, and hence free calling, in the pockets of mobile phone users. Skype does quite poorly in the field of mobile VoIP. Many would not buy a phone only to use Skype? The new Skype softphone for mobile phones is no better than other key players in this field.
Side-note: Lycos Phone is the first introduce a VoIP system that brings full multimedia support for music and video-on-demand, beating BOTH Skype and Yahoo’s VoIP services. Lycos Phone also offers free fax and free voicemail to email.
Skype doesn’t support 911 calls (accident & emergency number for USA), so you can’t/should never rely on Skype as your only phone. (With VoIP from a cable or phone company, you usually do get this capability.)
Some teleconference systems people frequently dial into do not recognise the touch tones that Skype generates.
The free Jaxtr.com service is a sister company of…..Skype!
Move over skype, now there’s Gizmo5!
With Gizmo5 you can chat with your AIM, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, iChat and Google Talk buddies directly from Gizmo5. Gizmo5 also has chat history that allows you to save all your past IM conversations.
Voicemail in Skype costs $6 for 3 months or $20 for a full year.
Voicemail in Gizmo5 is free.
You can record your calls with Gizmo5.
Skype has no such feature although third party tools exist which can record your Skype calls.
Like Skype, Gizmo5 allows you to receive calls from any landline or cell phone from anywhere in the world (currently only about 30 countries are supported). While the rates for Skype are $18 for 3 months or $60 for a year, Gizmo5′s rate starts at just $3 per month.
Skype may be overcharging for certain countries and it’s not without drawbacks. Yahoo Voice Rates in some cases are half that of Skype rates.
