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Jumping on the app store bandwagon, Skype has launched a directory of third party applications that can be added to the Internet telephony service.

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.

Plivo is an open source framework for adding telecommunications features such as voice calling or SMS to applications. It enables developers to let their applications interact with phone systems using the programming languages they already know. Plivo works by abstracting the underlying telephony system and exposing it as either a REST based API or as a set of XML elements that can control a call. It provides out of the box compatibility with FreeSWITCH, Skype, SIP, H.323, Google Talk and Google Voice.

Plivo is an alternative to cloud based telecommuncations APIs like Tropo and Twilio, allowing developers to keep their telephony applications on premise.

Salesforce.com officially announced today its acquisition of Indian web conferencing company Dimdim for approximately $31 million in cash. We reported rumors that Salesforce.com would acquire Dimdim in November, but this is the first confirmation we've seen from either company. As expected, Salesforce.com will integrate DimDdm's features into Chatter.

When Skype suffered a massive outage days before Christmas, the response - on Twitter, on Facebook, and in comments here on ReadWriteWeb - all pointed to the huge popularity of and reliance on the VOIP service, particularly when it comes to talking to friends, family and co-workers overseas. Indeed, data released today from the research firm TeleGeography confirms that Skype is increasingly becoming the means by which international calls are made.

According to TeleGeography, growth in international call traffic grew by an estimated 4% in 2010, to 413 billion minutes, down slightly from a 5% growth rate in 2009 and down substantially from the 15% average growth rate from the previous two decades. Skype, however, has seen a huge uptick in growth, particularly in the last two years.

A key part of cloud-based information technology is the ability to deliver benefits to the business and to the overall technology infrastructure for the organization.

This briefing explores the ways to build a cloud-based IT infrastructure that allows for a dynamic environment that supports business needs.

Tropo is a cloud-based API for adding voice, SMS, IM and Twitter support to programming languages. The service runs on telecommunications company Voxeo's infrastructure. You can use Tropo to build voice operated phone menus, automated VOIP applications, voice mashups, SMS applications and more. Tropo is free for development. Once an application moves into production, customers are charged per minute for voice services or per message for SMS services. Customers pay for only what they use.

Microsoft's debuted its unified communications platform Lync at a news conference today. Lync will go on sale December 1. Several big name companies like Boeing, Estee Lauder, France Telecom, Nikon and Orange are already using the solution according to Microsoft's announcement. Microsoft will also offer Lync Live next year along with Office 365 and promises eventual integration with Kinect, Microsoft's next-generation human-computer interface.

On Programmable Web (PW), the telephony category has 83 APIs. Of these, Twilio is by far the leader with 88 mashups associated with its API.

That's far ahead of Skype, which has 28; Jaduka has 8 and MyVox and Ringful each have six.

Twilio is a cloud-based service that helps you build telephony-based services. In September it added more than 100 new features.

ICantFindMyPhone.com is an adorable little website made by New York graphic designer Dave Dawson (whose personal site, IAmDaveDawson.com, implies that he has a habit of personal declaration URLs). The site simply calls your phone, so you can find it.

The site was highlighted by design blogger Tina Roth Eisenberg today and in comments there Dawson explains that he built it using the API of upstart popular telephony service Twilio. Update: It appears that Dawson may have run out of Twilio credits again...

Digium has released the latest version of its free and open source VoIP software Asterisk. Asterisk's features includes call waiting, hold and transfer, and caller ID, and this release adds support for Google Voice and Google Talk, as well as numerous other features.

Asterisk boasts over 2 million users and supports a variety of telephony protocols, both analog and VoIP, and both U.S. and European standard signals.