Facebook and Skype, Perfect Partners Seeking Deep Integration?

Skype is expected to enter a deep integration partnership with Facebook, according to a report at All Things D. The partnership would be reflective of Skype’s intent to become as integrated as possible, building around as many points of access, through social networks, mobile apps, etc, as possible. On Facebook’s part, this level of integration would reiterate its encouragement towards building communication tools around the social networking platform. According to Kara Swisher,

“The move by the pair–which have tested small contact importer integrations before–is a natural one for the social networking giant, which is aiming to be the central communications and messaging platform for its users, across a range of media.
Facebook’s goal, according to sources: To mesh communications and community more tightly together and add more tools to allow users to do so.
Since it was not going to create an Internet telephony service of its own–kind of like not creating a mobile operating system–Facebook has apparently turned to the Web’s Internet telephony leader.”

Such deals seemed promising even in the early days of social networking, with talks of MySpace and PayPal integration, amongst other things. Meebo was another anticipatory app, pushing strongly for this type of integration across social sites. Salesforce, for instance, is seeking its own integration with Facebook, through its updated Chatter app.

The VoIP industry overall has taken a few leaps in the past year alone, in part due to improved networks and supporting mobile apps. VoIP is finding ways to be of service for a number of web-based tools, sites and applications, providing another medium of communication exchange. Skype itself is after an IPO, independently looking to survive the telecom revolution.

Google has also introduced some heady competition, with a range of existing apps available for account integration, making it less reliant on immediate partnerships such as the one expected between Facebook and Skype. To that end, some like GigaOm are recommending that such a partnership take on a more official status, with Facebook acquiring Skype.