Tech Shout!

MySpace, the popular online community together with Internet telephony company Skype has announced that the former will offer its members free Internet phone calls using a new feature based on Skype’s service.

Users who already have a Skype account will just have to click a single button in their MySpace profile to call the computer or telephone of another member. This means that Skype users will be able to reach people in their network even when they are not online.

Standard PC-to-PC phone calls will be free of cost. However, users will be required to make use of premium options such as their own personal phone number, voice mail, call forwarding and the ability to make calls from a computer to land lines or cell phones.

Under this deal, News Corp.’s MySpace will share revenue with eBay-owned Skype. However, executives would not disclose any other financial terms of the deal.

For instance, users who set their MySpace profile to “private” will not receive a Skype call from someone who is not on their friend list. Users could also selectively add individuals to their Skype personal contact list, and any call can be blocked at any time.

In a phone interview Brinkman was quoted as saying, “We went to Skype and said we could incorporate your voice engine into our network- we’re not just slapping on an instant messenger client that doesn’t connect to MySpace. It’s not just a stand-alone product offering, it’s tightly integrated into the MySpace experience.

Skype’s presence on MySpace will be available in 20 countries worldwide beginning November 2007.