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Skype actually has been profitable recently.

I looked at your link, but I don't see anything which actually states that Skype is profitable. The linked page does say that revenues are up, that the userbase continues to grow, but it doesn't actually say that Skype is making more money than it is spending. It doesn't say how much they're spending at all. :)

We all know how profitable Skype has been for after eBay paid 2.6 Billion dollars for them.

Skype actually has been profitable recently. That said, Skype does not match up well with eBay's overall business model and I remember reading that they are looking to sell it.

Not to even mention how profitable Youtube has been since Google paid a mere 1.65 Billion dollars for them.

Could it be a branding/goodwill tool that also helps them drive users to their search? They certainly paid an exorbitant amount for the eventual profitability, regardless, but Google and YouTube are now both cultural icons.

You were: I worked for a company that produced one of the first commercial browsers for Windows, and which predated anything commercial for Macintosh AFAIK:

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-17043026.html
http://skypejournal.com/blog/2005/12/skype_status_report_part_3_by.html

It was built on a license for Spyglass' Mosaic, just as was Internet Explorer, but preceded even that to market; it may have even beat Netscape to market, I can't recall for sure. Note that Quarterdeck's browser also had "tabbed browsing". I don't think the Macs got a commercial browser until later.

Quarterdeck also had the Sidebar product, a paradigm which has often been copied in the decade and a half since.

Ultimately it comes to down to open systems vs closed systems. Traditional telco vendors (carrier and enterprise) all had "closed" systems - propreitery hardware and operating systems and usually propreitery protocols. *ALL* of them are moving (or have moved) towards open systems (read Linux) - supporting standard protocols that other vendors/end users can (in theory) work with. If you look at any product or system - it ultimately has to move to towards an "open" system.

Would Skype be as successful if it had been based on SIP? Skype was a disruptive product and most disruptive products *have* been "closed" systems to begin with. This has to happen sooner or later - and Skype cannot shy away from that. Take a look at http://skypejournal.com/ this has an interesting comment on this.

I don't think this is evil and has anything to do with breaking or cracking something. (Is DVD John bad?) I think this is a good thing - systems have to be eventually open and good systems win on the merit of the quality, user experience and, of course, cost...

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Sig fault and hence dumped

Check out:

Skype Journal

Looks like there are a lot of opportunity for deeper business integration. Wonder if this opens up any vulnerabilities for standard client users?

For example, there's this one: when Skype pops up a feedback form asking you how your call was, the URL it sends to pop up that form exposes various information including the phone number you just called, in clear-text.

Podcasting, Skypecasting, ummmm... blogcasting? Seriously, it's just a media stream, not something new. Please invent words responsibly.

Actually, you can blame that word on Stuart at Skypejournal. He created it a year ago.

I bought one of these a few months ago: http://www.skypejournal.com/blog/archives/2005/08/ i_like_going_co.php and am very satisfied. Two buttons so you can choose to dial via landline or Skype, and with the Skype In number I can receive calls like a normal landline...

With all that is going on with skype, there's tons of hardware and software sites out there. Luckily there are some sites like http://www.summitcircle.com/ and http://www.skypejournal.com/ that sort the crap from the gems.