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Skype Branches Out

Posted by timothy on from the et-phone-home dept.

Golygydd Max writes "Our site, Techworld, reports that Skype, the voice over IP people have just developed an API that allows web developers to include Skype technology on their websites. Although it's a bit clunky at the moment, it could prove to be a useful tool for tech support."

4 of 15 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Voice Quality by bkw.org · · Score: 3, Informative

    The codec they use is Open Source... I think you mean open source the protocol.

    bkw

  2. Re:Voice Quality by JohnA · · Score: 4, Informative

    Their codec is an open-source standard called iLBC.

    You can read more about it on the VoIP Info Wiki.

  3. Re:Voice Quality by crisco · · Score: 2, Informative
    Technically, it appears that Skype only uses a third party to facilitate a direct connection between the two NATed hosts. I've heard this described as NAT Punching and I'm still a bit fuzzy on how it works.

    According to this article, Skype licensed a proprietary codec from Global IP Sound.

    As for spyware, a little research into the history of the Kazaa client would reveal that the people who introduced the spyware did so after they bought the technology from the developers. The Skype people are the original developers and had nothing to do with the spyware included in the install. Remember for a time you could download the Morpheus client and participate on the same P2P network as Kazaa without spyware. It wasn't until Morpheus and Kazaa had a falling out and Morpheus no longer worked on the Kazaa network that you saw the spyware free KazaaLite clients coming out.

    --

    Bleh!

  4. Re:Voice Quality by magefile · · Score: 2, Informative

    I am so tired of saying this ... someone either tell me I'm wrong, or get people to learn! The spyware in Kazaa was added after it was sold to Sharman Networks.