June 17th, 2005
Skype: new third-party Skype video plug in may be flawed
According to "Jaanus," who runs Skype’s Share Skype blog, the company is looking into reports that the in-beta, vskype video add-on for Skype may be sending unwanted messages to people on user’s contact lists.
This is interesting, partially because vskype is not a Eurogarage hacker trashcode project, but is an undertaking of widely respected software developer Santa Cruz Networks, whose main product, VidiTel is a well-thought-of interactive collaboration platform that works over VoIP networks.
Even so, it cannot be dismissed that this beta should really be an alpha.
In a Share Skype posting this morning, Jaanus writes that the reports have been circulating internally, as well as through postings by James Enck, Global Telecom Strategist for Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe Ltd.
On Enck’s own blog, he says that when he first installed VSkype, earlier this week, "it apparently absorbed my entire contact list and asked who I wanted to invite, by automatically selecting all contacts."
Enck adds that "he tried to highlight one in particular, but somehow (probably my own stupidity/clumsiness) sent invites to all of my contacts, which resulted in a torrent of response messages at once. So, take it slow when setting it up."
To these comments, Skype’s Jannus posts that Skype users should exercise caution when trying new Skype plugins that the company has not yet certified or specifically recommended. "It makes sense to create a test user and not experiment when being logged in with your ‘main’ Skype Name, until you are really sure and confident of what you’re doing."
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
