Skype on Facebook?

Is Facebook about to launch Skype-powered video chat? Zuckerberg promises to unveil 'something awesome' this week

 

Facebook is rumoured to be preparing to launch a new video chat feature in partnership with Skype.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg has said that the world's biggest social networking website will 'launch something awesome' on Wednesday.

His comments have led to speculation that the site will announce a new feature powered by the Microsoft-owned video calling service.

Currently people using Facebook can only communicate using instant message text chat, but the two companies are reported to have agreed for Skype video chat to be integrated into the site.

The reports have been strengthened by the emergence of invitations for the event, which feature the picture of a face inside a speech bubble.

The move could dramatically increase the use of Skype, which currently has 170 million active users compared to Facebook’s 750 million

The partnership would bring Facebook closer to Microsoft, which is one of its shareholders and bought Skype for $8.5 billion in May.

Mr Zuckerberg told reporters in a visit to Facebook's Seattle office on Wednesday that the company has an imminent launch, but revealed scant details.

'Something awesome': Mark Zuckerberg has promised Facebook will stage an exciting launch next week

He said the project had been developed at the 40-person Seattle office, Facebook's only major engineering centre outside of its Palo Alto, California headquarters.
There has been speculation in technology blogs in recent weeks about various mobile products in development at Facebook, including the release of a long-awaited Facebook app for Apple's iPad and a specialised app for photo-sharing on the iPhone.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2010042/Mark-Zuckerberg-Facebook-launch-awesome-week.html#ixzz1QzltRPwP