Video comes to the Social Network.

My blog makes it clear that I like video conferencing. It probably also intimates that I like SightSpeed, the leader in delivering both free and feature-rich small business video services. I have had several conversations with their leader - Peter Csathy - and always come away confident that they are up to something he can't talk about. This week, among the sinners in Vegas, they added video chatting to social networking in a nice, browser-only package.

Now the conversation of convergence between online networking (a communication tool in itself), and other more formally recognized communications tools, have officially begun. Like voice and IM - still lagging somewhat in social networking - this is a must to make networking more valuable to the business community. And with this move, SightSpeed exponentially grows the opportunity for people to experience video communication - the very best way for people to 'see' that this is not just a nice to have for their respective businesses.

Ken Camp, an active member of the UC community has this to add, along with the announcement itself:

For those of us actively involved in social networking tools, the ability to include real-time video chat is a huge step forward. Driven by all the hard work at SightSpeed, we're now seeing video tools integrated into the browser using Flash. That's convergence in action. It's the integration of services, video services in this case, right into the application. For more and the announcement itself, go here...