As Google celebrates 10 years of world domination, er, operation, Skype wants you to know that the peer-to-peer VoIP/IM/video client is celebrating its fifth birthday.
Skype's PR firm has sent out a pretty folder containing a time line of accomplishments over the past 5 years, a "Five Fun Facts" sheet, a couple of tear-jerker case studies on how people use the software, a voucher for three months of unlimited service and a cookie (Iced, a bit dry). From April to June 2008, Skype added nearly 29 million users and clocked 1.9 billion SkypeOut minutes.
Taking a different tack, ITWire chimes in with some of Skype's product and company stumbles, but misses three grade-A headaches for the company. First among these was a multi-day crash of Skype in August 2007 attributed to a set of Windows Update patches. Can government entities conduct lawful intercept activities on Skype? Some say there's a back door which leads to Skype's third faux pas - an utter lack of transparency and a "black box" closed system which makes security experts nervous and leaves open source developers frustrated.
For more:
- ITWire talks about Skype's lower moments. Article [1]
Related articles
Skype Wiretap Nuances - FierceVoIP [2]
A Skype Back Door? - FierceVoIP [3]
Links:
[1] http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20496/1103/1/1/
[2] http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/skype-wiretap-nuances/2008-06-10
[3] http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/skype-back-door/2008-07-25