SPOTLIGHT: Skype - The other birthday

As Google celebrates 10 years of world domination, er, operation, Skype wants you to know that the peer-to-peer VoIP/IM/video client is celebrating its fifth birthday. 

Skype's PR firm has sent out a pretty folder containing a time line of accomplishments over the past 5 years, a "Five Fun Facts" sheet, a couple of tear-jerker case studies on how people use the software, a voucher for three months of unlimited service and a cookie (Iced, a bit dry). From April to June 2008, Skype added nearly 29 million users and clocked 1.9 billion SkypeOut minutes.   

Taking a different tack, ITWire chimes in with some of Skype's product and company stumbles, but misses three grade-A headaches for the company. First among these was a multi-day crash of Skype in August 2007 attributed to a set of Windows Update patches. Can government entities conduct lawful intercept activities on Skype? Some say there's a back door which leads to Skype's third faux pas - an utter lack of transparency and a "black box" closed system which makes security experts nervous and leaves open source developers frustrated.

For more:
- ITWire talks about Skype's lower moments. Article

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