Facebook May Count Skype as Weapon Against Google

According to Kara Swisher at All Things Digital’s BoomTown, Facebook and Skpe are preparing a new "deep integration partnership". This would include integration of SMS, voice chat and Facebook Connect. 

The Facebook integration will reportedly be available in Skype 5.0, which will come out of beta in the next several weeks, according to Swisher, who obtained the following screenshot of  a video chat session utilizing Facebook:

Image Credit: All Things Digital

Such an integration would be in direct competition with Google. Swisher’s sources say that Facebook’s goal here is to "mesh communications and community more tightly together and add more tools to allow users to do so". 

Google seems to be on a similar path, adding features (like video chat) to Gmail, and will probably continue to do so as its "Google Me" initiative becomes more of a reality – the addition of social layers across multiple contacts. 

It’s really a battle for contacts and communication. Skype could prove to be a very useful weapon for Facebook, who is striving to become  omnipresent across all devices, while Google works at it from multiple angles like acquisitions, product launches, operating systems and browsers (and probably the integration of  Google Wave technology into existing products at some point).