Skype has announced SkypeWeb, a feature that shows others your presence status on the Web and is being integrated into many Web sites and blogs enabling site users to talk for free and better manage communications. According to Skype, Bebo.com, the #1 Social Networking site in the UK according to Neilsen/Netratings, is just one of the Web sites using SkypeWeb. It also integrates with SixApart's MovableType. SkypeWeb was in beta for awhile but today it's for general release. After some further thought, I'm a bit ho-hum on this news since if you use the HTML code to share your Skype presence information on your website(s) anyone can see your Skype presence and your Skype username. I get enough Skype spam calls as it is, so do I really want to share my Skype username with the entire Web? It won't be long before the spammers find my Skype ID and spam it to death were I to publish my Skype ID online. What Skype really needs to do is only display the Skype presence information for people you've added into your social circle (Skype buddies). In any event, maybe I'll try it on my blog in a few minutes, but I want to first share the release hitting the wires today...

Web Presence Feature Already Integrated into More Than 50 Web sites in 20 Countries

Luxembourg, Feb. 9 - Skype, the global Internet communications company, today announced SkypeWeb, a Web presence feature that is already integrated into more than 50 Web sites in 20 countries around the world. SkypeWeb allows people to see Skype users' online status and call or chat with them from any Web site as well as Skype people from each site with the simple click of a mouse.

"With just a few simple steps we were able to incorporate SkypeWeb into our AppExchange platform," said Adam Gross, vice president, developer marketing, salesforce.com. "In addition to free Skype voice calls, the SkypeWeb presence feature gives our subscribers the ability to know when their contacts and colleagues are available and online - all directly from within Aalesforce."

SkypeWeb integrates Skype seamlessly and into any Web site. With SkypeWeb, Web administrators can easily enable all site visitors to talk for free over the Internet.

Companies integrating SkypeWeb into their sites are already reaping the benefits of increased ease of communication and interaction.

• Bebo, the largest social networking site in the U.K. and Ireland and one of the fastest growing in the U.S. with more than 22 million members, has integrated SkypeWeb to enable all Beboers to IM, voice and video chat.

• DBA.DK (Den Blå Avis) the number one Danish classifieds portal, is using SkypeWeb to show the Skype status of people who have posted classified ads.

• Lunarstorm, a Swedish/UK community Web site with 1.6 billion monthly page views, is integrating SkypeWeb to allow users to display Skype name and status in profiles.

• Onet.pl, Poland's leading Internet portal offering over 200 services and the widest range of information in the Polish Internet with 75 percent of Polish Internet users stating they visited Onet.pl at least once a month, offers SkypeWeb to enable more than a million bloggers and Webmasters to show their status.

• Salesforce.com, the technology and market leader in on-demand CRM, has made SkypeWeb available on the AppExchange, enabling customers to deploy it directly within their Salesforce implementation.

• Six Apart is enabling bloggers to show their Skype status anywhere on the Web.

• TOM.com is using SkypeWeb in its customer service offering to display Skype user presence information for its customer service representatives.

• vBulletin (vbulletin.com) has already adopted SkypeWeb, providing instant Skype status integration for the Internet's most widely-used forum software.

More than 50 Web sites, including Hutchinson Global Communications, Jubii.dk, nuvvo.com and Pacific Internet have integrated SkypeWeb to allow users to let others know when they're free and make it easy to reach them through Skype.

With SkypeWeb users can make their Skype status available on the Web in two easy steps:

Opt in using the tools menu on their Skype

Create their own presence button by copying-and-pasting a few lines of HTML and script from skype.com/share/buttons/