Confirming our report last week, Facebook has just announced a major new feature that it’s launching in tandem with Skype: video calling. 
 
 It’s a feature that’s been rumored for quite a while, and it’s one that Facebook is putting a lot of weight behind. Now, whenever you browse to a friend’s profile, you’ll see a new button nestled between the ‘Message’ and ‘Poke’ buttons that says ‘Call’. Click that, the other user will see a popup asking if they want to accept a call, and you’ll be immediately connected (you’ll need to install a small plugin the first time you use the service). 
 
 You’ll also see video calling integrated into Facebook’s Chat product. Really, you can’t miss it — Facebook is launching a new chat sidebar today that by default it takes the entire right side of the screen, and the first time you click on any user you’ll see a prompt asking if you’d like to make your first video call. If you try to initiate a video call and the other user doesn’t respond, you’ll be prompted to send them a video message. 
 
 So why is this a big deal? Facebook emphasized the fact that users will not have to create new Skype accounts to make calls, and that this will allow users to call their friends and family with a very minimal amount of setup (the flow for installing the applet only took a few seconds). 
 
 Of course, this comes just a week after the launch of Google+, which includes a video chat feature called ‘Hangouts’. Facebook’s video chat doesn’t support group chats yet, but when asked if Facebook will be rolling out group video calling, Zuckerberg said not to rule anything out. He added that one-to-one calling makes up the vast majority of video calling. 
 
 Skype CEO Tony Bates took the stage to make a few comments. One important thing he noted: Skype is talking with Facebook about having some paid products available through the web format. 
 
 Update: Facebook engineer Philip Su has just published some notes on how the team built the feature. 
 
 He writes that Facebook is using different techniques to install the Skype plugin depending on what browser you’re using to help streamline the experience: 
 
 Installation Flows for Each Browser and OS 
 
 To make installation as easy as possible, we specifically customized the installation flow for each OS and browser combination. For instance, on Mac browsers with Java enabled, the installer is hosted entirely within the browser so that no additional clicks are required. We use a small bootstrap EXE in Windows browsers to minimize the initial download time and to manage installation permissions as seamlessly as possible. We also put the entire installation flow inline with the feature itself, instead of requiring a separate download and installation page, so that your call automatically continues once installation completes. 
 
 Also very cool: Facebook users are using Skype’s service anonymously. 
 
 Protecting User Identity 
 
 To ensure that you can make a call without needing a separate Skype account, Facebook connects to Skype’s secure REST APIs using encrypted user IDs to set up the necessary credentials. This opens up the possibility of video calling to users who might never have used Skype before, and makes the overall calling experience much simpler for everyone. While it would have been easier to give user IDs directly to Skype, we instead went to great lengths to make sure users are protected and anonymous on Skype’s service. 
 
 Adding more. ||||| PALO ALTO, Calif. — Hoping to give its users a more intimate way to stay in touch, Facebook on Wednesday introduced video chatting inside its online social network through a deal with Skype , the Internet calling service. 
 
 The new feature allows users a way to connect with friends other than just posting messages, said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, said at a news conference here at the company’s headquarters. “It’s so easy, so minimal to use,” he said. 
 
 Last week, Google introduced Google+, its latest and most serious challenge yet in social networking, which includes video chatting for up to 10 people in an area of the site called Hangouts. So far, Google has limited the number of people who can sign up for the networking service. 
 
 To a certain extent, Facebook is playing catch-up — an unfamiliar position for a company that has grown to 750 million users worldwide, a figure Mr. Zuckerberg disclosed at the news conference. He has spent the last few years lifting Facebook past its rivals — it had 500 million users a year ago — but now faces questions about why he is following their lead. 
 
 The new Facebook service does not allow for group video chats, for example. It is also not available on mobile phones, unlike Skype’s smartphone apps. 
 
 Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land, an industry blog, said Facebook’s new service at least lets the company counter Google’s move with its video chat. But in the end, he said, video chatting has been widely available for years in a variety of ways, like through instant messaging services, Skype and Apple’s FaceTime. 
 
 “I didn’t get the impression that people were finding it difficult to find one-to-one video chatting if they wanted to,” Mr. Sullivan said. “This potentially makes it easier for more people to get going, but I don’t see it as that hard to begin with.” 
 
 To start a video chat on Facebook, users click a button on their Facebook chat list or on a friend’s profile page. A box will then appear on the computer screen of that friend to either accept or decline the call. 
 
 Conversations take place inside a window that pops up within the browser. Downloading a plug-in is required to make and receive calls. 
 
 Video chatting will be available to all Facebook’s users in the coming weeks. For now, however, users can access it at facebook.com/videocalling. 
 
 For Skype, the partnership with Facebook provides a chance to have more visibility beyond its 170 million users. The service is free on Facebook, but Tony Bates, Skype’s chief executive, raised the possibility of eventually making paid calls available to Facebook users. 
 
 Making calls from computer to computer through Skype is free. But people who use Skype to call a landline or a mobile phone must pay. Facebook’s alliance with Skype expands an existing partnership between the two companies. Their cooperation started last year when Skype let its users connect with their Facebook friends from Skype and to get news feeds. 
 
 Last month, the Skype added a Facebook contacts tab and let Skype users send instant messages to their Facebook friends and comment on their friends’ status — all without leaving the Skype window. 
 
 But making Skype available on Facebook is risky and may, in the short term, undermine its business, said Greg Sterling, an analyst at Opus Research. 
 
 Facebook’s users will most likely flock to the new video chatting service, he said, while avoiding visiting Skype’s branded service directly. 
 
 “Obviously this is a great feature for Facebook — it’s really simple and a lot of people will use it,” Mr. Sterling said. But he added, “I think it’s going to have an adverse impact on Skype.” 
 
 Mr. Bates said: “We’ve always wanted to be as ubiquitous as possible. The long-term partnership far outweighs users moving from Skype, or visa versa.” 
 
 Microsoft is closing in on its acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion. The purchase, announced two months ago, would give Microsoft a bigger footprint in online communications for consumers and corporate customers. 
 
 Microsoft, through its Skype acquisition, would also strengthen its ties to Facebook. Microsoft bought a small stake in Facebook in 2007, and it continues to provide search results within Facebook. 
 
 During the news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg signaled that the Skype integration was the first of several deals that would add services to Facebook with the help of other companies. 
 
 “Independent entrepreneurs, or entrepreneurs that focus on one thing, will always do better than a company that tries to focus on a million things,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in a comment that could be interpreted either as an acknowledgment of Facebook’s limits, or as a dig at Google for its broad ambitions.
– Skype just got a lot more social. The voice and video calling service has announced a new partnership with Facebook, reports CNN. The new service will allow you to see your Facebook "news feed" while you Skype, and give users the ability to call 'friends' who use "Facebook Phone" via a single click. Also new: group video chat, which Skype says will be free for now but eventually will be fee-based. The goal is to "make it easy to find your friends anytime you want to connect," says a rep from the social networking site. Skype's latest iteration, which is now available for download, is designed for Windows. No word yet on whether or not Mac and Linux versions will follow. The Facebook integration comes as Skype gears up for a $100 million share issue, notes the BBC. Click here to watch Skype's announcement and here to read how Google is taking on Skype.