BlogSmall business, Marketing, Promotion and Web Design

While preparing a replacement laptop I do install a lot of (somewhat) useful software. Most of it is freeware like Skype, which I am going to talk about.

As always I went to Skype’s web site and downloaded the latest version of program. If you still on that arctic expedition and haven’t noticed - Skype has bundled a Firefox plug-in with it’s software. And it’s mandatory. That’s right - you are notified about the plug-in installation only AFTER the install is complete. Pretty neat, eh?

Next surprise - if you launch Firefox after installing Skype, instead of your regular home screen (in my case - the ever-tempting about:blank page) you will see an uninvited Skype page devoted to Firefox plug-in (located here: http://www.skype.com/help/guides/ff_extension/) that still has (as of August 26, 2007) the following passage:

Calling phones within the US and Canada is free until the end of 2006. You need to buy Skype Credit to make international calls.

Gee, do you think we still got time for free calls? Or another version: Earth to Skype - it’s already 2007 halfway gone, damn it.

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