A couple of days ago, Skype officially announced their API. I find it ammusing that four links from the homepage, you can get to a PDF file (API documentation) that states on page one that says it "is considered to be strictly confidential." Wouldn't it be hard to have a confidential API? That defeats the purpose of having an API, doesn't it?

Anyway, the documentation looks very similar to the document I found a couple of weeks ago. There are two main ways to integrate with Skype. First, through a USB phone, you can make calls. And coincidentally, Siemens is offering a USB adapter that you can hook cordless phones to. This allows you to use a regular phone to make phone calls on the Skype network. Currently only in Europe, I'm sure it will make it's way across the Atlantic soon enough. So when I mentioned earlier that the only thing left was to call a computer from a real phone, this starts to get there. Granted, it's still a computer underneath.

The second part of the API is integrating applications with Skype. So now someone could write a tool for recording podcasts that utilizes Skype for making or receiving phone calls. Could we have a call-in podcasting show far behind? It looks like Qzoxy is the first company to release a toolkit utilizing the new Skype API, so it looks like some companies did get an early look at the API. With thier toolkit, "any Web designer can tackle the job of integrating Skype within their pages." They offer a Presense server - basically, is someone online right now?

With the new API, does this mean that help on websites will start to use Skype as a way to call support? That would be cool.

Thanks to Stuart Henshall for the information, who has a very interesting idea. How long until Presense is integrated into Outlook? Like MSN Messenger is now - see if they are online. Better yet, be able to make the call directly from Outlook. So now, I could send and receive blogs, send and receive emails, and make phone calls all from Outlook. A one stop communication stop!