Blue Skypes Comin' My Way

Okay, as some of you know, my wife is in Paris (click here to see her www.VenusInCombatBoots.com blog - she's already written seven posts from Paris, so you better get over there quick and read them). In her pre-trip research she found out about Skype, which is VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or IP telephony or Internet telephony or even voice over broadband. It's free to sign up for Skype and then you can talk to any other member of Skype around the world ... for free. How do they make money with this? I don't know, that's why I'm asking.

I've talked with Shannon now for over three hours (Lakewood, CO to Paris) for exactly zero dollars and zero cents. You just plug a microphone into your computer and listen through the computer's speakers. If you have a laptop you might need to use earbuds depending on the quality/loudness of your laptop speakers.

And how's the "call" quality? Crystal. Literally crystal. I'm floored by this whole thing. How can this be free? And how can it work so well? Ya got me. All I know is that it works.

With Skype you can also call people on their phone, but that's when they charge you money. But since signing up for Skype is free and takes no longer than signing up for Yahoo or Google or any of the other sites you've already signed up for, it's really no hassle at all. I did NOT put in any credit card information or payment information of any kind. So there are no hidden fees or anything. The only time you need to add payment info is, as I said, if you call someone on their phone (either landline or cell, I believe). And they accept PayPal, so how freakin' easy is that?!

Simply amazing.