Review: Skype Video Conferencing

Skype came late to the online video conferencing market but its service is familiar and wildly popular. How good is the new beta multi-party video chat feature? Could you use it in your small business? The short answer: maybe. But you might want to wait for the next version upgrade.

"When it comes to group video calls, one-time VoIP pioneer Skype plainly lags behind others. It's been fewer than two weeks since Skype added beta support on Windows PCs for a video conference call feature that competitors like ooVoo and VoxOx have long integrated to differentiate themselves.

However, Skype has the advantage of being a known quantity among casual technologists who would be otherwise less inclined to sign up for new services once they've already settled on one. Such is the case with one of the toughest test groups I know to please--my family. Five of us switched on our Web cams, and Skype 5.0 beta for Windows, to see how well the program connected three speakers all over California with two family members in the UK."