EBay has announced that it will buy the Internet voice service Skype. This move could pit eBay against both phone companies and other voice-over-internet services such as Vonage.

Skype can be used to make free voice calls from any computer running Skype software to any other running the same software, anywhere in the world. For an additional fee, Skype users can also call regular telephones and vice versa.

Although other online services offer free computer-to-computer voice conversations, Skype has grown at an astonishing rate, adding 150,000 users a day, mostly in countries such as China, India and Sweden.

Skype will be built into eBay, allowing buyers and sellers to talk to each other with a single mouse click.
USA Today September 12, 2005

Dr. Mercola's Comment:



I know that this is not related to health, but this is a major story that will absolutely affect you in the future. Since you are reading this on the Internet it seemed appropriate to review it.

Without any question, nearly all phone service in the future will be over VoIP. Your traditional phone service will cease to exist.Thereis even a possibility that your phone service may be FREE in the future, and Google will provide it.

This development with eBay and Skype is a major clue that we are in the middle of a radical transformation of the entire communication infrastructure. It is becoming more and more obvious that the Internet will become an increasingly important part of all of our lives.

Ifyou want to know what the future stores for your phone, you simply must read the interview in my favorite blog, Engadget, with Michael Robertson. He sold MP3.com for nearly half a billion dollars, and he truly understands open source. You will definitely be hearing more about his new company, SIPphone, in the future.