Skype 5.5 Integrates with Facebook
Skype and Facebook continue partnership with updated software and deeper Facebook integration

Earlier today, Skype, a free online video-chat service, launched the version 5.5 update to its Windows software, adding various features including increased Facebook integration. For the past month, a beta version of this software has been available. The newly integrated Facebook tab allows users to experience both Skype and Facebook platforms in a unified interface. Through this tool, users are able view their Facebook News Feed, update their Facebook status and view or “Like” wall post comments. These improvements further enhance the already solid relationship between Facebook and Skype, which began earlier this summer when Facebook announced that Skype video calling is available within Facebook. As both of these companies evolve, we hope to see other companies collaborating and sharing platforms that ultimately will enhance and benefit the user experience.

Stage an Email Intervention
Gmail invites users to save their friends and hold an email intervention

Google has just launched a campaign to attract more users to its already popular Gmail service. It asks current Gmail users to “save their friends from outdated email” by staging an “email intervention”. We at DMN would like to ad that we do not believe the chosen campaign name, “email intervention”, is meant in any way to trivialize the clinical use of this term. The site reads, “You’ve probably already improved the lives of your friends and family members by helping them switch to Gmail, but what about that one friend who still hasn’t made the switch?” the site reads. “It’s time to take a stand and stage an intervention.” Google has supplied three specialized e-mails, available at emailintervention.com, that existing Gmail users can send to friends along with a prepared intervention video. Google’s Gmail is estimated to have 200 million users, placing it third in the ranks of web e-mail providers, following Yahoo Mail with 270 million users and Microsoft with 350 million. Earlier this year Microsoft launched a similar effort to attract users from competing services. However, Google’s campaign does not target individual users, as Microsoft’s did, but rather allows users to take initiative and send comical, yet informative, intervention e-mails to multiple friends at once. More and more we are witnessing companies equipping their customers with tools to spread the word, and thus generate business and increase the customer base. It is interesting to note that a company as widely recognized as Google is placing the success and growth of their company in the hands of their customers.