VoIP Choices Ringing Off The Hook

Skype, Microsoft, AIM, Yahoo, Lycos, all of those companies have or will have options for doing phone calls from the computer; at stake is the biggest prize of all - keeping a person using a given provider's other services. Just focusing on VoIP services distributed by some of the big online players misses the real point of their acquisition or debut in the first place. EBay did not buy announced the public beta of its Windows Live Messenger. That service comes complete with the ability to buy minutes for use with the Verizon Web Call service. Live Messenger has a lot of company in the Windows Live family, like the recently launched Yahoo Messenger with Voice does free PC to PC calls too, and has low per-minute charges for calls to landline or mobile phones. With Yahoo, brand advertising figures very prominently in monetizing their services. Keeping users around for more display ad impressions always helps. In about a week, AOL should launch its AIM Phoneline service. Numerous media outlets have discussed the leaked information from AOL, including the availability of a free phone number for inbound calls. There will be complementary social media services from AIM to go along with Phoneline. AIM Pages figures to be AOL's answer to MySpace. AIM users will have a personal page, where they can add content and see that added by others. Lycos, once a prominent name online in the pre-Google era, does not want to be overlooked in VoIP. Like AOL, Del.icio.us") | Yahoo! My Web |