Skype for Cows?

We may be a little late reporting this, but our friends over on the Skype blog admitted that they were a little late to the party as well.  It seems that Skype ran an excellent April Fools Day joke involving a new "Skype for cows" feature. The homepage is back to normal, but you can check out Phil Wolff's coverage over on the Skype Journal blog for all the details.  The site was loaded with great jokes, but my favorite has to be "Download Skype for cows and talk until the people come home."

Skype Reaches Another Milestone

By the time I moved from PayPal over to the eBay side in 2004, eBay had already far exceeded 100 million registered users, so membership milestones didn't seem to carry a ton of excitement around the office.  However, having been at PayPal when we passed the 1 million mark (and many of the millions that followed) I can certainly recall how exciting it can be. 

Having said that, I found a great bit of news from Jaanus over on the Skype blog yesterday.  While their membership total is much higher, yesterday marked the first time in history that 9 million users were on the network at the same time. Congrats to everyone over at Skype!

While you are perusing the Skype blog, be sure to check out this interesting post about their plans to evolve the Skype brand, or the video about using Skype for business.

Using Skype to Keep Tabs on your Pets

Many of you out there might not see the point in getting a web cam for your computer.  Until recently I was one of those people too, but as I saw more and more people on my Skype contacts list with the video icon I started to get a little more intrigued.  After all I had a few friends who were already trying out the whole video chat thing and loving it, so I figured I'd give it a try. Now the chat feature is obvious, but it wasn't until I was visiting the Skype forums and stumbled upon a thread about "home monitoring" that I realized another great use...keeping on eye on your dog!

Now keep in mind that Baxter is totally adorable (that is him on the right, and you can even see the first part of the PayPal logo on my T-shirt), and within seconds of meeting my co-workers became infinitely more liked than I could ever be, but a recent bout with allergies (and the medication that went with it) gave him an endless thirst and thus a need to "eliminate" more often.  His location of choice had been the fireplace, so after some re-training things seem to be back to normal, but I still had my concerns, so I opted to keep an eye on things myself.

With the help of a trusty Apple MacBook (with built in iSight camera) and Skype video chat, I can now call my home, have the home computer auto answer, and then accept the video call.  It does require creating a second Skype ID (since you can't call yourself) but it's still pretty easy.  I can even call out to Baxter if he starts sniffing around his old spot.  Just make sure you have the volume turned up on the home computer. So far things seem to be working, but only time will tell.   

Borat Says "Jagshemash" to Skype Users

This would have been even more fun to share with you in time to participate in the promotion, but since Borat: Culteral Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorius Nation of Kazakhstan (yep, that's the actual name of the movie) debuted with what many are referring to as a "jaw dropping" $26.5 million last weekend we thought there would be folks out there that would enjoy this anyway.

In late October Skype, partnering with MTV Estonia, held a promotion to encourage fans to learn about using the communications software by leaving a voicemail for Borat through Skype.  Participants were then entered in a drawing for tickets to an exclusive early screening of the film. The screening was on October 28th, but the Skype voicemail for Borat is still active, so if you want to try it out and leave one for fun you can click here or follow these steps:

1. Open Skype
2. Click on the Dialpad tab (it's the one with the phone symbol)
3. In box 2 (just above the number pad) enter mtvborat

World Cup Fever!

With the first weekend of World Cup action wrapping up I thought it would be fun to show you "football" fans out there a little of what some of the others in our eBay family are doing to give people a chance to participate in the fun. 

Over on the Skype blog Jaanus (who you may have run into on the Skype discussion board or in one of the recent Skype workshops) announced that there are new World Cup-related decorations you can add to your Skype WeeMee or Klonie to make sure everyone knows your team.

Over in the UK, eBay is hoping fans will rally around Trinidad and Tobago and take part in a eBay Penalty Shootout. 

And don't forget, you can always show your spirit with World Cup apparel and souvenirs from your favorite team.

Skypecasts are a cool concept...what do eBay members think?

I was prowling around the Community forums this afternoon (yes, eBay staff are "lurkers" too), and went to check in on the new Skype discussion boad.   It's great to see that Jaanus, a Skype "pink" (eBay staff who post are called "pinks" because of the pink header on their posts) has been actively answering questions to help eBay members understand what Skype can do.

I felt I knew Jaanus from the Life at Skype blog before we ever talked in person.  A few weeks ago he visited the eBay San Jose office and joined a meeting with my team.  I think Community people must share a gene, because he seemed to fit right in like family.  We're looking forward to working closer with Skype on some Community projects in the future, so stay tuned.

Speaking of cool Skype-related things... have you heard of Skypecasts?   I think this is a fascinating concept -- Anyone can schedule a Skypcast (like a conference call) on any topic, get it listed in their directory, and find yourself hosting a call with people from all over the continent (or world?) on your favorite subject.. for free.

I'm interested in what you think about Skypecasts.  Would you like to interact with other members or with eBay staff this way?  Let me know on our Chatterblog discussion board.  (linked to from the bottom of every post.)