An effective website, much like a good sandwich, can actually suffer from having too many ingredients. With Facebook announcing voice-chat (currently in closed beta), one must wonder if this will propel Facebook even higher in the web2.0 stratosphere or turn it into a cluttered beast that operates too slow (i.e. the demise of AOL). My Facebook page has already turned from a simple wall posting and messaging with friends platform into a advertising and data-capturing behemoth. If they don't watch it... I'm going back to IRC.
We as a software development company are excited about it. If voice chat works well, it will give our developers a new platform for our custom software applications. If the chat doesn't function as it should we can always improve upon it using Facebook's developer tools.
I expect the chat to work well. Facebook has engaged Vivox to offer ut, who provides voice service for Second Life and EVE Online. With a user base of over 15M users one would presume the kinds are all ironed out. The service will offer one-on-one and group discussions. Dinosaurs who don't have a Facebook account can even use a free number to join in on the phone.
A few things I wonder:
1) Since it supports conferences, this will clearly be used as a business tool. As Facebook courts businesses more will they lose their core base of college students and people with not enough to do at work?
2) With a third party vendor involved clearly they hope to monetize this. Would you be turned off by voice advertisements? How do they think they are going to earn using voice chat?
Either way, another story about web portals becoming increasingly integrated and taking business from the old industrialists (phone companies). Drop me a line and let me know what you think.
Best,
Bobby
For a screen-shot of the demo view and more info, take a look at the CNN article.
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