This, of course, is more of a company culture problem than anything Yammer can control. Yammer continues to grow, and the enterprise social network space is where companies who are conceding truly social networking dominance to Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, will seek to grow.

Yammer is an enterprise social network and becoming increasingly popular for publishers to set up virtual newsrooms. While it has often been described as "Twitter behind a firewall" because of its use of hash tags, Yammer has more of a Facebook feel, in my opinion, down to being able to "like" messages left by co-workers.

At Daily Dot, Yammer was used to assign and claim stories, get feedback, request that a story be posted to the Web site and, occasionally, receive a semi-public tongue lashing from an editor (the justification I was given when I complained about having all of my idiosyncrasies discussed in front of my virtual co-workers was that, as a startup, everyone else could learn from my mistakes).

But, the occasional flame war with an editor not withstanding, the worst part of working on Yammer is the same as the worst part of socializing on Facebook: those emo-updates on Facebook from someone you haven't spoken to in years about a recent breakup and baby photos of some half-forgotten high school friend often bury the important stuff. And on Yammer, that important stuff is often information you need to do your job properly. There is no virtual water cooler in Yammer, meaning all the idle chit-chat is happening in your virtual cubicle.

On more than one occasion this chatter meant an #editrequest would get buried and missed, meaning an editor would not see, read and post a story that would have otherwise beaten our competitors. Sometimes these requests got buried because of a legitimate flood of news; other times, however, they got buried because of a flood of #snaps (Daily Dot's preferred hash tag for self-congratulatory chatter when a story got picked up by a bigger news outlet).

The other big drawback about Yammer? In my experience, it actually discouraged one-on-one communication.

ReadWriteWeb uses Skype, which has chat rooms that can be used for getting input on stories, discussing coverage and leads and, yes, going off on the occasional personal life update. But co-workers can also contact one another directly, either via instant message or voice, and that dramatically improves how people relate to one another. Daily Dot did use Campfire as a chat client, but it was another site to log into and if the person you needed to speak with wasn't logged in when you were, you were out of luck.

Is Skype the perfect back-end enterprise solution? Of course not, nor is Yammer completely flawed. The big takeaway from all of this is no matter what system your firm implements, its has to be done thoughtfully and updated frequently until it is perfect, or at least less flawed.

There has been mounting speculation that Skype would soon be a feature on Windows Phone since Microsoft announced plans to acquire Skype last year. The company had initially promised the introduction of Skype-equipped Windows phones by the end of last year, and last week the Telegraph reported that Microsoft Rick Osterloh said at the Consumer Electrionics Show in Las Vegas that the feature will be available "soon."

But on Monday, a Microsoft spokesman refused to pin down the specifics of the product launch.

Meanwhile, Skype spokesperson Chaim Hass said the Guardian report was nothing new.

"This is nothing different than what was announced by MSFT last October," Hass said. "At this time, we have no specific timing to share."

Despite acquiring Skype from eBay for $8.5 billion last year, Microsoft's Windows Phone is the only major mobile operating system that does not have a fully-functional Skype client. While Microsoft could introduce a version of Skype for Windows Phone as early as next month, a extensive roll out is not expected until later this year when Microsoft updates the entire operating system.

This new announcement is the inverse of the initial Facebook deal with Skype back in July, which let Facebook users make Skype-powered video calls within Facebook.

Is this the best of both worlds, or is this just another Facebook-Microsoft move?

Of course, the Microsoft/Facebook partnership was already pretty tight.

Bing debuted social search with Facebook integration in May, allowing Bing to grab "likes" from friends. Facebook began using Bing-powered maps. Users can translate Facebook pages into any language using Bing's translator.

Microsoft has a stake in Facebook and, more importantly, the social web. Will this new Skype integration bring them one step closer to crushing Google?

And perhaps more importantly, do consumers even want video calling?

Skype-powered apps have always been a source of huge unrealized potential. People say that your telephone contact list represents your real social network and the ultimate social graph to build apps on top of, but people do a whole lot of calling on Skype these days too. Add in video calling, screen sharing, text chat, file transfer and the P2P protocol it all runs on top of and what have you got? An awe inspiring opportunity. "Imagine the possibilities of Skype Video Calling directly in one or more of the desktop applications you use each and every day," the company says, "be it office productivity software or games."

Here at ReadWriteWeb, we use the Skype API for inbound and outbound messaging. We haven't used any video chat APIs to date, though options like TokBox and recently the Google Hangouts API have made that seem easier than ever. We are bloggers, though, so pantslessness is an occupational hazard and other forms of communication tend to be more viable on a day-to-day basis.

The app directory is almost entirely filled with call and chat recording apps, which are great, but Skype has so much more potential than that.

Unfortunately, signal quality is not always great on Skype. Cross-platform support is uneven: frustrating for Mac users and maddening for Linux users. Skype's mobile offerings sometimes feel out of their weight class, too, when up against a big stream of data they are asked to transmit. Many developers have fallen deeply in love with Twilio's API already, too.

"[Chris Andrews, Senior Business Development Manager at Skype] says that potential products using the API could focus on specific Skype desktop apps for kids, or seniors," writes Leena Rao at TechCrunch this morning. "He adds that some partners who are using the Video APIs are focused on distance learning and telemedicine opportunities. For, now, there are no plans for a mobile API, he says."

Will Microsoft and Skype be able to build a thriving ecosystem of apps that let seniors practice telemedicine on kids around the world, record the video, translate the dialogue in text and voice, all while transferring files?

That would certainly be fabulous if they could.

The beta version of Skype 5.4 for Mac, which was made available for download today, lets you connect your Facebook account and add everyone on your friends list to your contacts in Skype. From there, you can IM Facebook friends right from the "Contacts" page and, if your friends are using Facebook with Skype too, you can video chat with them.

The "Home" screen on the Skype desktop client for Mac now features a reformatted version of your Facebook news feed, including the ability to like and comment on statuses. You can also post your own status updates, just as you can from the Facebook website.

Another change worth noting is the addition of advertising to the "Home" screen. The advertising program, which Skype announced in March, serves as a means of bringing in additional revenue from the product without interrupting the experience of users. People often balk at the addition of advertising to products they use frequently, but honestly, it could be worse. Imagine if Skype added a column to the right side of the chat window and displayed auto-refreshing, context-relevant skyscraper banner ads throughout the course of your conversations.

What do you think of this integration? Do you like the idea of using Skype to communicate with Facebook friends? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Sounds like a four-person Hangout, doesn't it? But the Google Plus open video chat service is still confined to the desktop. Fring keeps pushing mobile video chat forward, and the giants are slow to react.

"Playground Video chat empowers users to video & voice their opinions about things that matter to them," says Avi Shechter, CEO and co-founder of fring. "We let users do more than simply 'follow' their interests. Now they can actively engage with others via video chat, instead of waiting for character-constrained updates." That quote takes a shot at just about everybody providing chat-like services on mobile platforms, including Twitter, which seems like a stretch as a fring competitor. But fring clearly believes in mobile video chat as the most human kind of digital interaction.

In June, fring became the world's first group video chat service on mobile devices, beating heavyweights like Skype to the punch. The startup has been around for a relatively long time, mostly making little moves by giving users and developers access to many major text, audio and video chat services at once.

Lately, the company has confronted competitors more directly, implementing cheap voice calling and capitalizing on Skype's constrained group video capabilities. Playgrounds' branding feels like an obvious swipe at Hangouts, but it's apt. Hanging out at your desk is one thing, but with fring on mobile devices, the world is your video chat playground.

Do you use your mobile device for video chat? Would you use it for meeting new people? Sound off in the comments.

Most of the apps are geared toward businesses users, while a few are for personal use. The directory features just under 25 apps, whose functionality includes things like call recording, screen sharing and integrations with third party services.

Naturally, Qik, the mobile video app Skype acquired earlier this year, is included as a "featured" app in the directory. Qik is not offered as an add-on to Skype, but rather its listing links off to the iTunes App Store where users can download it for iOS.

Other popular apps include InnerPass Screen Sharing and Zaplee, a cloud-based phone system for businesses that forwards Skype calls to phones, routes calls and handles voicemail.

Developers who use Skype's API to build applications can submit them by generating an XML file of their content, hosting it somewhere and sending Skype a link to it for consideration.

What third party apps would you like to see in the Skype app directory? Give us your wish list in the comments.

Created at a hackathon last year, GroupMe is one of a handful of apps that enable people to have multi-person chats via their mobile devices. Group messaging has become a bit of a phenomenon this year, as a number of solutions have sprung up offering services that enable private group chat conversations from users' phones.

The precise terms of the deal were not officially disclosed, but AllThingsD cited sources who said Skype bought the company for $85 million.

"This acquisition is another step towards our vision to provide a global multi-modal and multi-platform communications experience," said Skype CEO Tony Bates in a company blog post. "It complements our existing leadership in voice and video communications by providing best in class mobile text-based communications and innovative features around group messaging that enable users to connect, share locations and photos and make plans with their closest ties."

Microsoft is already planning deep integration between Skype and its own Windows Phone mobile devices, and the inclusion of a group messaging service like GroupMe into that platform seems like a natural fit.

Group messaging was a hot topic at this year's SXSW conference and was recently named one of the top trends of 2011 by ReadWriteWeb. Another group messaging app, Beluga, was purchased by Facebook in March of this year.

One of the first orders of business will be the creation of a Windows Mobile version of Skype, Neil Stevens, the company's vice president and general manager of products and marketing, told Forbes recently.

The result of this development flexibility will be a version of Skype that feels more native to the device than a third party app typically does. Think FaceTime, but for Windows Phone instead of iOS, perhaps with elements of Apple's upcoming iMessage mixed in.

When Microsoft bought Skype in May, mobile integration was one way in which our own Richard MacManus predicted we'd see this acquisition come to life. Another is in the living room, where Internet-connected TVs, gaming consoles and set-top boxes are proliferating. Microsoft already offers Video Kinect, which lets users video chat with other XBox Live and Windows Messenger contacts. Skype has indicated that their service will be integrated into Xbox and Kinect. At a minimum, we should expect Skype contacts to show up on Video Kinect, if not integration of some of Skype's underlying technology.

Other places Microsoft plans to integrate Skype include Outlook, Lync and "a wide array of Windows devices."

Skype 5.3 for Mac also makes a few improvements to the app's user interface, specially around how contacts are displayed. Although the previous version worked fine with OS X Lion, this version improves upon that support. It's also backwards compatible with the previous two versions of OS X, Snow Leopard and Leopard.

This update comes one week after Skype released, removed, then re-released their official app for the iPad, which has a UI similar to the desktop client.

You can download Skype 5.3 for Mac here and read the release notes here.

Updated: After initially removing the Skype for iPad app from the App Store, the company has announced that it is once again available.

Updated: Skype has pulled the app, announcing, via Twitter: "To ensure your best Skype experience, we've temporarily removed Skype for iPad which went live prematurely today."

The official Skype application for iPad has landed in the iTunes App Store and is now available to download.

The app works over both WiFi and 3G and takes advantage of the front-facing camera included on the iPad 2 by offering one-on-one video chat. Until now, iPad owners had to settle for the iPhone version of Skype, which of course operates at a fraction of the screen size (or in a somewhat distorted fullscreen mode).

In our initial testing, the app ran smoothly and kept perfectly in sync with the desktop version of Skype. When you launch it for the first time, it may take a minute or two for all of your active chats to load, especially if you have any ongoing group chat rooms. Like its iPhone and iPod Touch counterparts, the iPad version of Skype supports push notifications, alerting you of new chat messages as you receive them.

Owners of the first generation iPad obviously won't be able to particpate fully in video chats but can recieve and view video calls from other users.

Skype users have been clamoring for an iPad-specific application for some time, especially since the iPad 2 was announced, which of course launched with support for Apple's FaceTime video chat feature. Shortly after the second generation of Apple's tablet was announced in March 2011, a representative from Skype said on the company's user forum that the device's release had "sent our Skype development team back to the drawing board to completely redesign the user experience and feature set for a version of Skype befitting this innovative device." Five months later, Skype for iPad is here.

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Tango now has over 18 million users in 190 countries using its video calling service. Unlike Apple's proprietary FaceTime, Tango works over 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi, while FaceTime is Wi-Fi only. And even though Tango's install base falls far short of Skype's 170 million monthly connected users, not to mention its 600 million+ registered accounts, it's growing fast. In fact, it's growing twice as fast as Skype itself did during its first year, TechCrunch recently noted. Today, Tango adds a million users every two weeks, the company says.

We covered Tango barely 6 weeks after its September 2010 launch, when the application had been downloaded over 3 million times by mobile users. At the time, Tango shared that its ambitions were to move onto other platforms, including the desktop, the tablet and the TV.

Tango for Mac on the Horizon

Tango has already conquered one of those three platform (tablets), and has apps for the iPad and Android tablets available now. With the forthcoming launch of the new desktop software, the company is hoping to reach the wider PC market, consisting of 1.5 billion devices worldwide. By this time next year, Tango CEO Uri Raz says there will be 100 million customers using his company's software.

The choice of going Windows-first on the desktop is obvious: sheer numbers. Tango CTO Eric Setton says that PC users comprise 70% of Tango's user base. But a Mac application isn't too far away. "We do plan to release on Macs and it's in our product roadmap," Setton says, "but we do not have a definitive timeline. It's an important platform for us and we aim to be everywhere."

$42 Million in Series B, Skype Investors Involved

Clearly Tango is on the fast track, having also just announced it has closed $42 million in its Series B round of funding led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, notably the first outside investors in Skype, as well as venture capital led by Len Blavatnik and Alex Zubillaga.

How Tango is Different

For end users, what makes the service different from Skype is a minimalist feature set. You can't buy credit or dial landlines, there isn't an IM-like "chat" feature and you can't accept calls from non-users. In other words, Tango does video chat and just video chat.

More importantly, though, it makes the process of doing video chat incredibly simple. There is no "setup" involved and you don't have to create a username or password to join the service - you just input your phone number. Tango then automatically fills its address book with other Tango users it finds on your phone. A similar process will be offered in the PC version, too.

On the back-end, to make that setup process happen quickly, Tango keeps a centralized directory of its users. This is different than Skype, which is based on a peer-to-peer model of communication, where data moves between end users' devices, not through Skype servers.

Tango is an interesting company to watch, somewhat like seeing Skype reborn as a mobile-first outfit. Whether or not Tango can ever reach the same heights as Skype, especially now as a Microsoft property with integrations planned in everything from IM to the Xbox, still remains to be seen.

As Apple, Google, and now Facebook scramble to offer their users video chat options, it's clear that these companies are looking to meet a huge perceived demand for the functionality. We all want to bypass simple voice messaging for a face-to-face video conversation, right?

Well, maybe.

Video Calling: The Future or Just a Fad?

But other figures suggest that while there is a growing interest in video calling, it is still just a small portion of phone or VOIP communication. According to a survey by VOIP service Rebtel that we reported on last month, 13% use video chat to talk to family, 9% use it to talk to friends and just 6% use it to talk to their significant other.

Of course, the ease with which Skype integrates with Facebook is sure to boost the frequency with which we video chat. And as tech pundits and early adopters continue to rave about the Hangouts feature of Google Plus, perhaps we'll join The New York Times' Jenna Wortham in realizing what a "life-changing" experience it can be.

Or perhaps we'll find that, video chat is a nice feature to use every once and a while... with some people... on days you're fully dressed... and are in a tidy room with nice back-lighting, but isn't really a killer feature at all. It will be like my experience with FaceTime on the iPhone - something I used once to see if it worked and haven't utilized since. Indeed, The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal wonders if it isn't "the cupholder of social networking" - in other words, that extra feature that isn't really necessary to run the machine, but one that we judge on whether or not we want to buy the car.

Do you see yourself using video chat more frequently? Or is it merely a new shiny toy to test-drive today, before returning to the good ol' fashioned voice call?

Alexis Madrigal says at The Atlantic that video chat is like cup holders in a car, essential only because of their ubiquity, but "to treat the ability to video chat in any form as tantamount to transforming communication would be reaching too far." Michael Arrington says, in a story headlined to imply that there is a clear winner ("no contest"), that the two products don't in fact overlap and don't really compete. I'm going to argue otherwise; I believe Google Plus Hangouts are clearly superior.

I'll bet those limitations will likely be resolved by the end of next week. Google Plus is fresh and new, it's changing fast and its user experience team is paying a lot of attention to feedback from the probably millions of people testing the system so far. User experience is quite good throughout the rest of the site, all they have to do is smooth over a few rough edges and the Google Plus team will be able to offer its users the same functionality Facebook can and more.

By the end of this month one difference is going to separate Google Plus Hangouts and Facebook Skype: on Google you can video chat with more than one person if you want to. On Facebook you do not have that option, you will be limited to one-to-one video calling for the foreseeable future.

In the future, Google Hangout's features like autofocus on speaking parties, video sharing and hopefully a more open API will all be relevant as well.

Of course the bigger picture battle between these two networks is another story, I'm just saying that Plus did a better job on video than Facebook.

Skype charges users $5 to $10 per month for multi-person video chat. It's not cheap to provide. Google Plus will use it as a loss-leader and as an important feature differentiation over Facebook. It will eat the cost of high-bandwidth multiperson video chat in order to attempt to capture market share in social networking. Some observers say the Google Hangout system is architected in a way that puts much of the technical burden on the client side, or the end user's computers. That should help.

I suspect people will like group video chats too, especially young people. That remains an open question (ReadWriteWeb's Audrey Watters asks this afternoon Do Consumers Really Want Video Chat?) but I think social networking plus video equals more video. And the option of multi-person video is better than the limitation of single-person video calls.

This is just one of many weapons that Google Plus will bring to the battle against Facebook, but I think it's an important one. The ability to watch YouTube videos together, to do quick, free, multi-person video calls, and to collaborate with small groups - I think those are going to be important features that Facebook just won't offer for some time.

It probably won't be enough to put Google Plus over the top and clearly Plus is nowhere near as widespread as Facebook, nor as tested with mainstream users. But which video chat feature is better? I think it's clearly the one the provides more than one option.

The rollout of video calling on Android for Skype is limited because of the system requirements. A phone must have a front-facing camera (of course) and be running version 2.3 (Gingerbread) or higher. As more devices upgrade to Gingerbread, the more will be able to take advantage of Skype video chat. Can Skype remain relevant in the mobile ecosystem as services like Pinger, Google Plus/Talk, Facebook and others become more prevalent?

Skype is following in the list of companies that have recently made previously unavailable apps accessible to a limited set of devices. Netflix and Hulu Plus finally came to Android in limited rollouts, with promises of more devices to be added later.

Qik Video Connect also allows for video calls over Android. Qik allows for video calls between Android and iOS devices, as well as users on computers. Qik was bought by Skype for $100 million in January.