Your Skype stories

Meet Victoria. Fresh out of London and fresh into New York, Victoria is indebted to Skype for making her feel as though her her old friends, family and workmates are "just next door, not across the Atlantic". Skype allows her to "have a quick chat, get the goss, have a quick giggle, without having to go into long drawn out email which no one has time to read or more importantly reply to!"

Victoria's story is just one of the tales you'll find on the Skype Stories page, where everyday Skypers share their tales of how this little bit of software has made their lives a little bit easier (or chattier).

To send Skype your own story and feature in glorious technicolour on the website - and maybe even get a mention in this blog - go to Skype Stories and click the 'Send us your story' link.

Skype could be the biggest thing in dating since red roses and a glass of wine for the lady, according to the LA Times.

Over the weekend the paper carried the story of Mark Passerby and Salwa Al-Saban, who developed a transatlantic love thang via the magic of Skype. Despite living 5,000 miles apart in Michigan (him) and Cairo (her), the pair married a mere month after meeting online.

Salwa and Mark also used Skype Video to get to know each other better. Mark, a 41-year-old technology developer for an estate agent, even set up a film projector at home and pointed his Web camera at it so they could watch movies together.

Continue reading "Skype, Skype me do" »

Remember Susan, the Korea-based, US-born English teacher who designed Skype's prize-winning third birthday card? That's her masterwork above, though it could serve equally well as an illustration of my present surroundings.

(The, um, large man sitting next to me in the internet cafe is now eating takeaway chicken. It smells like a deep-fried dead person. You couldn't make this up. I will sell my soul to anyone who can fix my home net connection...)

Anyway. Susan's just got back from a five-day road trip around the Korean peninsula, so she's refreshed and full of chat. "So many people have contacted me since I won the contest," she told me. "Nearly every other day a new person requests my contact details or sends me a 'hello' chat message. They're from all over the world: Australia, China, Korea, Malaysia, Turkey, Germany, Morocco. Oddly enough though, they are all guys..."

But like any good Virginia girl, Susan's heart will always belong to Mommy.

Continue reading "Desperately Skyping Susan" »

To celebrate the investiture of mousse-voiced Scot Kirsty Young as Desert Island Discs host, I thought I'd stage a quick Skype-based fantasy interrogation. Stop what you're doing (come on, I know you're bored at work), rev up your imagination and answer these simple questions. The best ones will be rewarded with my eternal admiration and, possibly, a Finger of Fudge.

Just click the Comments link below to offer your responses.

1. If you could have a Skypecast with any five people alive today, who would they be and why?

2. Which one person would you like to add to your Skype contacts list?

3. If you could invent a Skype Chat emoticon, what would it be?

(Legal note: I lied about the Finger of Fudge. They're great, though, aren't they? An underrated sweet.)

All the recent talk of business deals between Skype, eBay and Google has got people (including me) wondering what it all means for Skypers and web users. Well, here's a great example of how the beautiful friendship between Skype and eBay can make life easier, and maybe a touch more lucrative.

Peter Scrope got in touch to tell us how pleased he was with the bright new Skype button on his eBay ads. The first of Peter's eBay sales to feature a Skype button was his old piano, which was eventually snapped up for £313. Bulky, pricey items like these often attract lots of questions from potential bidders, and the time-delay involved in email can mean that questions don't get answered before an auction ends. A Skype button, however, allows sellers to chat with would-be buyers in real time.

Continue reading "Skype your way to eBay success" »

When I asked you to get in touch with your true stories about how Skype has changed your life, I hadn't reckoned on quite such an enthusiastic response. That'll teach me to be a crusty old British cynic.

One of the first stories I received was one of the most striking. Dr Doug Yu (above left) is a tropical ecologist, currently working with a team of researchers in darkest Peru – though without Skype, he'd have had to pack up and return home to Norwich long ago.

Doug, whose work currently focuses on a group of native Americans called the Matsigenka, originally used GILAT satellite telephones to communicate with colleagues and students back in the UK. But after six months, the system started rejecting calls from the UK, then from the US, and finally from Brazil. About as useful as a marshmallow umbrella.

Then Doug remembered Skype. "So we now use SkypeOut to call the villages," he told me. "It allows us to arrange logistics, consult with each other during fieldwork and to keep in touch with our Matsigenka friends. These are people who were only contacted for the first time 30 years ago, and they still lead a very traditional lifestyle."

Skype now allows Doug and the team to maintain a "virtual lab group," working remotely with each other wherever they are in the world: mainly Brazil, Germany, Peru and China. "We use Web 2.0 services like Basecamp to manage our documents, but Skype is what we use to have group discussions and otherwise chat about things without worrying about the cost. I communicate with my colleagues in the department less than I do with my colleagues around the world!"

And Mac-lover Doug, who's eagerly awaiting the new video version of Skype for Mac, says: "It's also nice to watch my nephew grow up."

* Has Skype changed your life? Drop me an email, or Skype me: janehoskyn36.