May 15th, 2009 | by Pete Cashmore
Telltale signs in Facebook’s code suggest it might be testing a video calling feature. Notification messages visible in Facebook’s code include “Waiting for your friend…”, “Video call denied”, “Incoming call” and “Loading video call…”.
The clues, first spotted by AllFacebook, point towards a likely move for the website. We’re open, of course, to the possibility that other developers are able to host their code on the Facebook CDN, but assuming that AllFacebook’s assumption is correct and this is an upcoming product, there’s a strong case to be made for Facebook moving in this direction.
Facebook() wants to be the single place for all your online communication - from messaging to photosharing to status updates and instant messaging. Adding video chat, then, would seem like a logical next step. The revelation follows news this week that Facebook was adding Friend lists to chat.
It’s difficult to assess the impact of such a move. When Gtalk added support for video chat within Gmail(), it seemed like a blow to video chat leader Skype(). Except that the functionality wasn’t entirely web-based - it still required a download - and your email client isn’t a natural place for video chatting, which is more of a social experience than a means of productivity.
Facebook, however, may be able to play on its advantage: the social site is a natural venue for video chat, and if they can make it function without a download, there’s likely a huge market for video chat in schools and colleges that block downloaded software like Skype.
What do you think? Would you use Facebook video chat?
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