What does today's announcement of a business deal between Google and eBay mean for Skype?

"We'll see next year," says my fellow Skype blogger, Jaanus Kase. "Testing of all these new joint initiatives is said to begin in early 2007. For now, one thing is sure - great companies working together is always exciting news."

Yes but what does it actually mean? You know, for us punters?

Google's Talkabout blog gives us a clue. "Our plans to explore interoperability between Google Talk and Skype [will make] it easier for our users to chat with one another," writes Lewis Lin, product marketing manager for Google Talk. "This is just another step in our commitment to interoperability via open industry standards."

As an example, Google promises to incorporate a Skype button into the Google Toolbar - though that won't come as news to IE and Firefox users who've tested the toolbar's latest beta (below). My, these guys work fast...