Pissing Off Skype

Skype isn’t known for playing well with others. It is a wonderful service that I use every day, but it is one hell of a walled garden. It has shunned the open SIP protocol that Gizmo and others have embraced. It’s instant messaging platform doesn’t work with Meebo and other aggregators. It is an island, other than for the (very important) caveat that it works quite nicely with the POTS network, meaning you can use skype to call, and receive calls from, the cell and regular phone networks.

We’re still waiting for a proper Skype hack to come along that gives us access beyond the Skype client software. But today, Charlie Paglee is announcing that they have hacked the Skype interface, and are putting their own “Skype In” and “Skype Out” functionality. The hack adds a button into Skype that adds TalQer VOIP functionality. Highlight a Skype contact, then click the button to call him or her via the TalkQer Voip service.

TalQer has a couple of nice features that Skype doesn’t offer, particularly a free inbound phone number and voicemail. But it’s unclear if that’s going to be enough to convince large numbers of Skype users to add this additional bit of software. My guess is it won’t, but this may irk Skype enough to block them and perhaps file a lawsuit or two.