So, funny thing: this morning, I was looking to see if VTech had finally gotten around to releasing an update for its cordless VTech phones with respect to making them Vista compatible, so I googled “vtech skype vista support”, because I’m too lazy to sort through their own site. You might recall me ranting about why Vista enrages me, and using the lack of drivers / support one of my chief beefs. Anywhoo, I thought perhaps another site had found a solution, perhaps someone blogged about it. Funny thing was that my own rant ranked #7 on the google search

So I am showing you this not just to show off that this blog has ranking for some pretty obscure terms, but that blog post on my blog outranks VTech itself when it comes for what I think is a relevant search term. I am only casual observer for SEO topics, but looks like a clear example where VTech needs a hand — not just in terms of being the right one to rank for the appropriate topic, but from a public relations point of view, as well.

In fact, VTech has solved the problem as of a few weeks ago, as it did release a new software update so that its now Vista compatible, with the page in question over here.

[edit: or, over here where "VTech released a Vista compatible update for their Skype phones" -- VTech, please thank Andy Beard by sending him something (like a free phone, maybe?) after the exchange I had with him below]

Where is does that page rank in the scheme of things? Well, nowhere to be honest. Why is this important? Only because about a year ago VTech made some noises about never releasing an update that would work with Vista machines, which have been (obviously) received quite negatively.

Chalk one up under “why SEO is important”, I think.

I was pretty harsh with this mealy mouthed response to the Skype outage a few days ago — but it looks like in a bid to make things right Skype is doing more than just making apologies.

In giving a kind of ‘refund’ to paying users. Some of them anyway: Skype Pro, Skype Unlimited, SkypeIn or Skype Voicemail customers will get 7 extra days added on to their contracts for the 2 days or so that was lost to the outage.

Its unclear whether or not Skype users who merely have Skypeout credit but no plan (like me) will get any kind of refund.  Nor, for example, is it clear that free users of Skype will get anything another than an apology — although its hard to make an argument that they should get anything since they’re only using a free service.

However, the guys at Skype get a tip of the hat by doing something right in light of the outage.  How it plans to address — if it ever does, perhaps behind the scenes — with business or institutions who may have lost real dollars to the outage, is another matter.  And if anyone does happen to hear of that, I’d be happy to know what that is.

Today I learned a valuable thing about computer, networking, and Internet security.  I mean, I don’t know the first things about such things, but it turns out that you *don’t* actually need fancy certifications, experience, or even have something workable to defend your computer intra-networked-webs.

All you need is *LOVE*, man. ;)

Well, that’s what I’m getting out of the latest major critical outage at Skype (disclosure: I haven’t had any noticeable problems over the past day or so).  I mean when I read such things as “the Skype system has not crashed or been victim of a cyber attack. We love our customers too much to let that happen“, on the official Skype Blog, what else am I supposed to think?

That perhaps Skype customers — businesses and regular customers — deserve some kind of “real” answer that is free from glib, patronizing, corporate-blog-speak?  That perhaps a service that many have come to depend on, and perhaps have now lost *money* from, ought to provide a sincere — and I mean, really sincere — explanation that satisfies both laypeople and experts alike?

NAaaaaah.

I guess that’s too much to ask.

Some news out of GigaOm, where it looks like Skype and Wal-Mart have struck a deal wherein Skype-branded products will now be carried by Wal-Mart.

All elitest snobbery aside, is anyone else wondering if the name “Skype” carries any cachet to the Wal-Mart crowd? I’m thinking, (as you might) probably not.

But, is Skype really so simple that it is now ready for prime time? (because getting distributed through Wal-Mart is nothing else but “prime time”)

I think the answer for this is “sort of“.

I use Skype — but I don’t use it instead of a normal phone service. Why? Well, I live in a condo. I would think about using some kind of VOIP service except that there’s no guarantee that it would mesh with the telephone network that allows me to buzz people into my building.

Which would be fine if you lived a life of solitude, without any hope of visitors — but like most people, I don’t live the life of a hermit.

What I *do* use Skype for is to make Skype-to-Skype calls, and take advantage of the cheap calls to land lines. $20 flat fee for unlimited calls to North American landlines for the rest of the year?

Hell yeah.

But in my opinion the thing that is the killer application for Skype is the very thing that makes it more like a phone, and less like some fancy schmancy VOIP device — and that’s a cordless USB phone.

The model that I have allows me to access the phone line OR Skype, which is great. I can use the handset like a phone whenever I want, and then with a flick of a button, make long distance calls through Skype without any problems.

Moreover, because its cordless, I don’t need to be tethered in front of a PC when I’m making my phone calls.

Just like an ordinary phone! :)

Om Malik makes some great points about the need for Skype to increase revenues to justify its purchase price. They make sense insofar that I don’t really understand the telephony industry at all, anyway. I still can’t figure out why eBay purchased Skype in the first place — or rather, how they justified its huge price, and their projections on ROI.

Nevertheless, is Skype ready for prime time? I’m thinking that the answer may really hinge on the hardware, more than anything else — in as much that its able to overcome the perception that its something that requires, or is tethered, to an actual PC.

But perhaps that’s just an elitest geek-centric way of thinking.