The championship title for best video chat service is up for grabs.  Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook,  had a few announcements today in that vein, including improvements noted about design and Group Chat features.   However, the icing on the cake is Facebook’s new video chat ability in partnership with Skype.

The functionality is simple for video chat.  Users can browse a friend’s Facebook profile and click a call button.   The person on the receiving end has that option to accept or decline the call.  Any concerns of a video starting before one is prepared, was cleared up by a question to Mark from an audience member.

Mark Zuckerberg believes there is a sociology behind how sharing develops.  Services like Google+ and Skype are providing the avenue of defining video chatting.  There was a time that turning on a webcam scared the living crap out of people.  Now the comfort of sharing oneself visually is no different than sitting across a table in a restaurant.

Skype is happy with the ability to create a proactive environment within Facebook.  Tony Bates, the CEO of Skype, notes that Skype is “creating a broad reach to the Facebook website” and won’t deter it’s native desktop/mobile user base. As cool as this sounds now,  users aren’t thinking about what they’ll really want yet.   John Furrier attended the event, and found out in a session afterwards that Skype cannot make calls from Facebook to a Skype client just yet. Also, Skype’s premium group video chat service was not hinted on at all during the presentation,  but is on the roadmap.

While Zuckerberg lightly touched on Google’s new service, he mentioned “this is the way the next 5 years will play out.”  It signals that he recognizes Google’s efforts, but at the same time knows that users will be aggressively deciding on what service fits their needs better.

It’s interesting to note that Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype was only a short time ago.  Amazingly, it was only a few weeks later the Facebook video chat service was revealed.  Signs could point to a future Microsoft acquisition of Facebook,  but for now it’s just an intriguing relationship.