Oprah Winfrey invited her viewers on May 21 to come along on "an extreme Oprah Show adventure" with Skype.

In the show, entitled, "Where the Skype Are You?," the Chicago talk show host pushed the limits of Skype.

She showed how Skype video can connect people in such remote places as the Arctic and Antarctic, on board a Virgin America plane 37,000 feet above San Francisco and on board USS Louisville, six stories below the Pacific off Hawaii.

Oprah described Skype CEO Josh Silverman as the "wizard" of Skype, connecting from Oprah's studio in Chicago to Silverman in London. He said to Oprah: "You have been putting us completely to the test."

Oprah is no newcomer to the Skype world. She has been using it to connect to celebs and ordinary people since March 2008.

"I just love Skype. Love it. Love Skype," she said.

Oprah recently gave Twitter, the short messaging service, a boost. But she said Skype is "a step above Twitter Twitter."

She had Skype connections set up outside her Chicago studio, in a Best Buy electronics store in midtown Manhattan and Harrods in London. She shared laughs with a young man shopping for a Mother's Day gift and with a man addicted to buying green socks to wear on Fridays.

She also connected with some folks featured in this blog: Skype sketcher Barbara Muir, of Toronto, who drew a picture of Oprah based on a view from Skype video, and Ed Gallagher, the blind San Franciscan, who sails a boat, skis and rides a bike while guided by friends who navigate for him based on views from a Skype-connected helmet
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Skype connections are not ordinarily available at Palmer Station at Antarctica--2,000 miles from the South Pole--because of limited bandwidth. But researcher Neal Scheibe was able to take advantage of a Skype link to speak with Oprah to show the tech's potential. He said he and his colleagues planned to speak to classrooms via Skype while they had the link. That inspired Oprah to say she might use Skype to teach students in a school she established in South Africa.

In an amusing segment, Oprah, Silverman and a couple passengers aboard Virgin America had a wine testing with Randall Grahm, of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, Calif. He said he started doing wine tastings on Skype because he was tired of flying to meet with distributors.

Silverman explained how easy it is to download the software at Skype.com, to register for free and to find friends and family among the 400 million people who use Skype to call for free in Skype-to-Skype audio and video calls or for low rates via Skype to landlines and mobile phones.

Oprah encouraged her viewers to give it a try: "You can get your own Skype on America. Get your Skype on."