Skype Video Calls Arrive In Browser Via Outlook.com

Skype has finally found its way directly into your browser, no longer requiring the stand alone software to run the worlds most popular voice and video streaming service, but its unfortunately not a smooth as that, as everything has a catch.

Microsoft has been quick to take full advantage of this feature for their Outlook.com email service and you’ll need a browser plug-in, not exactly a stretch I know but obviously you will need to be a user of the Outlook service to see any benefit of this feature.

Skype has not long announced a preview of their support for audio, video and instant messaging from directly within Firefox, IE ad Chrome, but integrating these directly into Outlook.com will mean you can quite literally call someone back from your email contacts list and get straight to the point, a very handy tool for business.

The new services are rolling out this week here in the UK, and US and Germany will be following over the next few weeks, the rest of the world will have to wait a little longer though and global rollout could take up to 5 months.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft keep the plugin tied to Outlook or if it can be accessed from a wider part of the browser over time, but its certainly a step in the right direction to building a more unified browser and communications system, its always nice to have more options.