Facebook's 'awesome' plan to hook up with Skype?

MicroSoftFaceSkypeBook vidchat deal rumoured

Facebook is reportedly about to launch a new video chat product powered by Microsoft-owned Skype.

The move follows on from the company founder Mark Zuckerberg's comments last week that Facebook would have an "awesome" new feature to shout about on 6 July.

TechCrunch, citing an insider with knowledge of the partnership, is now reporting that Facebook will launch a new Skype-based video chat product that works within the browser.

It will apparently also come loaded with a desktop component, all pointing at what TechCrunch describes as "deep integration" between Facebook and Skype.

If the report proves accurate, then the timing of such a union is interesting, given that it comes after Microsoft said it would purchase Luxembourg-based Skype for $8.5bn in May.

That said, this wouldn't be the first time Skype has played the integration game with Facebook. In October 2010 it inked a deal with the company by slotting its "News Feed" and "Phonebook" features into its software.

Microsoft already has close ties with Facebook. Its Bing product powers the dominant social network's search and Redmond owns shares in the privately owned firm. ®