Facebook is preparing for a major announcement later today. Whether it's in response to all of the Google+ hype or it was planned all along can only be speculated, but Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the most popular man on Google+, described the new mystery product as "awesome."
The company made it official by announcing that it will be holding an event later today to unveil something, but did not say what it was about.
Speculation ensued, the most popular choices were an iPad app, a new photo-sharing app or a much stronger photos component in the mobile app, or even more details on Facebook's plans to incorporate music and video services into the site.
Later though, it became apparent that Facebook's big announcement was the long-rumored and delayed
Skype integration which would add voice and video chat features to the site. To say that launching a Skype-powered video chat option today is timely would be an understatement.
It couldn't have come at a better time since one of the killer features of Google+, that has most people gushing over it or at least excited about its potential, is Hangouts the
group video chat app.
Hangouts, especially the group part, has proven very popular. There are other video chat services out there, Skype being the prime example, but Hangouts makes the whole process easier and a lot more serendipitous.
But if Facebook manages to launch a tightly integrated product, one that offers group video chat for free, something that Skype doesn't, there is a very good chance that the social network will neutralize any threat from Google+, at least on this front or at least for the time being.
Then again, Facebook could be launching something else completely. It's probably not anything to do with
Project Spartan, the codename for the mobile app platform Facebook denies to be working on. But that is coming soon as well, the
latest rumors indicate that August 1 may be the date of the unveiling.
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