Facebook partners with Skype to offer video chatting

Hoping to give its users a more intimate way to stay in touch, Facebook yesterday 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 beyond simply posting messages, said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, 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 catchup - an unfamiliar position for a company that has grown to 750 million users worldwide, a figure Zuckerberg disclosed at the news conference. He has spent the past few years lifting Facebook past its rivals 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 also is 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.

“I didn’t get the impression that people were finding it difficult to find one-to-one video chatting if they wanted to,’’ 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.