Facebook And Skype Teaming Up

The Facebook experience is about to get more up close and personal. The social networking site has announced a strategic partnership with Skype, which provides online voice and video communication.

Late last month Google launched Google+, which includes a video chat feature called “Hangouts.”

With the new Skype partnership, Facebook users will be able to make free video calls to people on their “friends” list. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says it's all part of a trend of building social apps on top of an existing social infrastructure. He said the two firms had been working on the project over the last six months.

Microsoft is very much in the background of this union, with strong connections to both companies. Microsoft is currently in the process of acquiring Skype for $8.5 billion. In 2007, it invested $240 million in Facebook.

As for this new service, no one will be earning money from it directly, at least not at first. Though it will be free to users, Zuckerberg did say its possible the two companies will introduce premium services in the future.

At the same event, Facebook announced several other new features, including “group chat.” That will allow ad hoc conversations between groups on Facebook.