If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em, right? That’s exactly what Google+ extension developer Mohamed Mansour has decided to do. Mansour has been creating extensions for Google+ ever since it was released, and many of them broke after the latest Google+ redesign.

Needless to say, the developer was upset with the lack of attention that was paid to developers who deeply cared about Google’s social platform. Google’s response was, well, not as warm as it could have been:

We appreciate and value developers contributing to our platforms and services, and continue to develop and support our official API. We can’t support applications built on undocumented, unofficial APIs, including those based on reverse-engineering or scraping Google+’s user interface.

While Mansour hasn’t left the Google+ platform as a user, he did take an opportunity to let his pretty big following there know about his next big project. Unsurprisingly, that project will not focus on Google+ at all, it’s built entirely with Facebook in mind instead. It looks like Google+ may have made an enemy.

In a post today, Mansour outlined a new project that aims to bring the popular Google+ Hangouts functionality to Facebook:

Introducing Facebook Video Parties!

Many of my friends are still on Facebook, and the best thing I liked about Google+ is simply the Hangouts. From the last two weeks (part-time), I have been trying to implement the good features I like from Google+ Hangouts including the wish list items that I always wanted to see.

It integrates well with Facebook Timeline, and you have full moderation controls if you want to do public parties. It would play nice with people in low connections and very high speed connections! You can even do study groups for an exam with a bunch of Facebook friends.

The project isn’t available for testing as of yet, but the screenshot that Mansour posted definitely looks promising:

Currently, Facebook only allows you to chat with one person over video at a time, thanks to its Skype integration. Being able to have seamless video “parties” would be a phenomenal feature to have on Facebook, and I’m surprised that the company hasn’t rolled out an official one yet.

Even though Mansour has changed gears to work on a Facebook project, he promises that the video platform he’s creating will allow Twitter and Google+ users to join “Parties” eventually.

Skype is starting to sound like a broken record when it comes to breaking records, but this feat is impressive nonetheless. A little over a month ago we told you about Skype’s announcement of 35 million users logged in at once, setting a new record for the VOIP service, just a week after it broke its previous record of 34 million users.

This time, Skype made more than a jump of a million and has announced that it has seen 40 million people log onto the service at once for the first time. This of course, is a record. What’s more interesting than these record-breaking feats, is the way that Skype announces them on its blog; usually with nonsensical posts waxing numerics or civilization. This latest announcement is no different:

Between three and four millennia ago, sometime between 2000 BC and 1000 BC, the world’s population stood at 40 million people. Early civilizations like the Egyptians, Phoenicians and the Minoans focused their trading efforts on the sea, building centers of commerce all along the Mediterranean. Letters using these early peoples’ alphabet took weeks or months to travel on the sea or overland by boat, horse or foot.

Well, the world certainly has changed a lot since then. Today, we have seven billion people on Earth, and there are centers of commerce almost everywhere. With changes in technology and mechanized forms of transportation, letters (surprisingly) still takes days to get from person to person, while email takes just seconds.

But one of the biggest changes is one we reached today – when 40 million concurrent users were signed onto Skype all at once. This is a massive new milestone for a simple piece of software that helps make meaningful connections a cool part of people’s lives every single day.

Think about this: thanks to Skype you can make audio and video calls, send SMS and instant messages, get voicemails or share files with anyone anywhere on Skype quickly and easily at low to no cost.

So much for those long boat trips.

We thank you all for taking the long journey with us!

Long story short, a lot of people use the crap out of Skype. It’s nice to see the service chugging along after being acquired by Microsoft. See Instagram fans? Just because your favorite service gets acquired doesn’t mean that it will change for the worst.

Hot on the tails of the device’s release, the company has announced a new version of the app complete with Retina Display support:

We’ve just released a new optimized version of Skype for iPad – especially for those of you with the latest iPad. The new version of Skype 3.8 for iPad makes use of the new iPad’s improved retina display, so Skype looks even better than before.

We recommend that everyone upgrades to the newly released Skype for iPad application from the Apple App Store.

While no other features are in this release, the Retina Support is more than enough to make heavy Skype users happy.

➤ Skype for iPad

Skype is a powerhouse when it comes to VOIP, which is exactly why Microsoft bought the company for $8.5B last year. In what appears to be a surge of usage this past month, the company has announced a new record for usage at the same time, 35 million users. That means that these people were all logged into the service, not necessarily making audio or video calls at once.

The new record comes just one week after it announced that 34M users broke its previous record of 32M just one week prior to that. Basically, more people are using Skype than ever before.

Here’s what the company had to say on its blog today about the new record, complete with nerdy number talk:

According to a Wikipedia entry, 35 is a discrete semiprime (or biprime) (5 × 7); the tenth, and the first with 5 as the lowest non-unitary factor. The aliquot sum of 35 is 13 this being the second composite number with such an aliquot sum; the first being the cube 27. 35 is the last member of the first triple cluster of semiprimes 33, 34, 35. 85, 86, 87 is the second such triple discrete semiprime cluster.

For those of you scratching your heads wondering what this all means, in simpler terms it represents 35 million, the number of concurrent users who were just on Skype, just one week after announcing our milestone of 34 million users concurrently online smile_80.png. We at Skype so excited to see more and more people choosing Skype around the world every day, sharing special moments with friends, family and co-workers across borders. If you’re one of the 35 million users who logged on today to take part in this milestone, share with us on Twitter how you used Skype by using the hashtag #ILoveSkype.

While every new record isn’t story-worthy, this does illustrate that Microsoft’s investment is paying dividends, as its purchase didn’t scare away users to another service. With its app recently hitting Windows Phone, numbers should continue to climb.

Last week Web-calling giant Skype announced a new record as it saw 32 million people using it at the same time. That record has already been surpassed after the Microsoft-owned service recorded 34 million users online concurrently at peak on Monday.

Though the figure is some way short of the active user bases of Twitter (100 million per month, as of last year) and Facebook (766 million per month and 60 million to mobile apps) Skype’s number is impressive as it is represents real-time usage.

In a post on the Skype blog, social media director and blogger-in-chief Jennifer Caukin speculates what might have seen last week’s record surpassed so quickly:

It’s a quick jump and speaks to the volume of people who rely on Skype everyday around the world to stay in touch. Perhaps it’s driven by all the buzz of people talking about the Oscars, NASCAR Daytona 500, or maybe it can be attributed to our announcement today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for our new Skype for Windows Phone Beta app.

Following widespread rumors this month, Skype launched a beta version of its Windows Phone app. The company will be aiming to make the new app is as popular as its others as it looks to broaden its appeal and usage. Skype for iOS has likely passed 60 million downloads and the Android app has clocked up more than 10 million users.

Skype for Windows Phone has been a long time coming, and it follows comments made in 2010 in which the company revealed that it had no plans to develop a native app for the platform. However, that all changed with the growth of the Windows Phone platform, but mainly also because the Redmond-based software giant acquired Skype for $8.5 billion in May 2011.

Now that 2011 is behind us, the new year allows for new players to step into the startup game with brand new ideas and visions. Even though companies like Facebook, Apple, Twitter, and Instagram had massive success last year, there are still areas that are just begging for a tech makeover.

Some of the innovation will most certainly come from giant companies with a lot of money to spend and huge teams, but I think we’ll be surprised by how many smaller startups will take on big problems in 2012.

If I were working on something new, these are the areas I’d hone in on with laser focus.

Private social networks

Path tried to set the world on fire last year with its app that allows you to interact with under 150 people. It’s the anti-Facebook, if you will. With version 2.0, Path is closer to creating an experience that I believe more people will want to participate in this year, but the companies mobile-only approach is leaving a lot of opportunities on the table. I’d love to see a few other teams try to tackle this concept using the web, since it’s a clear path to bringing in mainstream users like Mom and Dad.

Google is on to something with its “Circles” concept for Google+, but it’s difficult to escape the feeling that you’re on a platform with millions of other people. A simple and personalized web-centric alternative to Path could really make private social networking hot in 2012. What Path is lacking though is the feeling of collaboration that is commonplace in a small circle of friends or family members. The app is still focused on the concept of the stream, and I’d like to see someone else take a different approach.

Local

Look for the local boom to hit us at some point this year. With apps like foursquare and Facebook letting us share our locations and interact with local businesses, there is still an opportunity for someone to build a platform that is made only to interact with your favorite coffee shop or restaurant.

Imagine being able to know things about a restaurant in real-time, like how many people are there, what the specials are, and even what waiters and waitresses are working that night. Making your customers feel like they have insight into how you operate will build a better relationship with them and keep them coming back.

Telephony

Everyone jokes about how we don’t use the telephone anymore, and it’s not because we don’t like to talk to people. The lack of innovation when it comes to telephony is absolutely shocking. The hottest thing to happen to the phone in the past 5 years was visual voicemail from Apple. There are companies working on re-imagining our experiences on the telephone already, but this is something that will be on fire in 2012. Skype gave us VOIP for computers, added some video, and that’s about it.

In the near future, we should be able to engage in synced gaming, note-taking, and other interactions while we’re on the phone. If you’re an AT&T user, you know how great it is to be able to check your email or the web for something while you’re talking on the phone. Sorry Verizon customers. This type of interaction needs to be made easier, and you should be able to challenge someone to a game of Angry Birds right in the middle of a conversation.

The technology is there, it’s time to innovate.

TV and web integration

The various hacks for Apple TV have me excited about the future of the television. This innovation is Apple’s for the taking, but with the potential for a fully interactive TV from Apple, comes a whole new platform for developers to build on.

Start thinking about what apps you’d like to have open while you’re watching TV or a movie. Text messages, incoming phone calls, email, Tweets, and live chat are the easy ones. But if you think about all of the data on the web that can be pulled into a broadcast contextually, the possibilities are absolutely mind-blowing. I’ve played around with Google TV, and its widget approach is just not going to do it. A seamless interactive experience on the television will surely be ours by the end of 2012.

Photography

Don’t run away, developers. Instagram doesn’t own the universe yet. There is a lot of room for innovation when it comes to photography on mobile devices. While Instagram has built a fantastic community around streams of photos with filters, there are sure to be more things to do with photos.

I’d love to see developers that use photography for do-it-yourself animation or do smarter things with the meta data stored with your photos. For example, Apple’s Camera Roll could surely use its own refresh. It tells me nothing about my photographs. I’d also like to see apps that help me stitch together similar photos based on colors or objects in them. Again, the technology is there, but hasn’t been put to full use yet.

Small and fast wins

These are the areas that I see the most room for improvement and innovation in 2012. The platforms are there, technology is there, and the talent to build great things are most certainly there. It won’t be the big companies that wow us in 2012, it’ll be the smaller teams who eventually build something focused and user-friendly that will.

What areas do you feel are ripe for innovation this year? Tell us in the comments.

Google has announced today that its extending free calling within Gmail through 2012 for calls made within the United States and Canada. This is of course similar to its announcement for 2011.

In an extremely brief blog post today, Google announced the move:

As the holiday season approaches, we’re happy to announce that we’ve extended free domestic calls within the US and Canada for 2012.

This is our way of helping you connect with friends and family across the country. And you can still call the rest of the world from Gmail at our insanely low rates.

Google Voice is still trying to become the default VOIP carrier online, with Skype being its main competition. Voice has found its way into not only Gmail, but into Google+ Hangouts as well.

In a study published by BGR today, it has been made clear that the slew of messaging and VOIP apps on the market are already making a dent into the paid services provided by carriers.

The study by mobile(SQUARED) shows that according to operators, messaging, voice and video apps will cause usage of its own services to drop between 11% and 20% over the next 5-10 years. Some operators see that number being closer to 31%-40%.

Even Steve Jobs wanted to build his own wireless carrier to bypass services provided by carriers. For example, iMessages completely bypasses text messaging. Will we just need data from carriers in the near future? Probably.

Since companies like Facebook are ramping up its free Messages platform, and Google Voice getting more and more integrated into our social experiences, carriers may have to look closely at its offerings to keep its customers happy, and more importantly paying.

The study was carried out for Mavenir, and its VP Shubh Agarwal had this to say about the findings:

The findings confirm what we have found in discussions with the mobile industry. This is one of the primary reasons the industry is currently moving towards an all-IP converged core network accelerated by the deployment of LTE technology. By allowing users to place high-definition voice and video calls, chat, share content, and discover new services as part of a globally connected framework, operators can retain and even grow their share of customer communication spend.

mobile(SQUARED) analytics Gavin Patterson shared his thoughts about the upcoming decline in need for carrier’s service:

The mobile landscape is changing as users embrace messaging of all kinds that enable them to seamlessly message a multitude of devices. This study confirms that lucrative messaging revenues are already impacted and operators are assessing ways to deliver core-network services in the all-IP environment. Rich Communication Ecosystem (RCE) applications are one example of how mobile operators can overcome the hurdles they face.

With apps like Skype, GroupMe, WhatsApp, and Kik replacing the need for voice calling and texting on the carrier’s dime, the operators are looking to dig in and build its own group messaging and VOIP services to embed into devices tied to your existing phone number.

Just recently, WhatsApp announced that its users now send over one billion messages a day. That’s got to hurt carriers, not just because they’re missing out on potential business, but because they simply can’t control it.

Some people believe that phone numbers are a thing of the past. Yesterday, I spoke with Enflick‘s Co-Founder Derek Ting, creator of popular messaging apps TextNow and PingChat. He thinks numbers are dead in the water:

Everyone has a smart phone, 5-10 years from now, we’re going to a numberless world.

Do you text and call more than using services like Skype, Facebook, GroupMe, and Kik? Tell us in the comments.

Steve Ballmer was at the Web 2.0 conference, and there was a main recurring theme. Social.

The CEO of Microsoft said that “Apple has punted on social”, despite its integration of Twitter in iOS5, and discussed Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype and deep partnership with Facebook, and would like you to believe that Microsoft is right in the middle of social. Ballmer pointed to the strengths of Microsoft’s ability to link your social personas using its Windows Live ID platform to illustrate this.

When asked about Google+, Steve Ballmer refused to discuss any competition between the two companies in social, and feels like it’s in a stronger position with Skype as a part of Microsoft.

About Google+ and Microsoft, Steve Ballmer said:

We don’t don’t have to take on every battle

Ballmer also openly expressed and admitted Microsoft’s “luck” in not purchasing Yahoo! for 44.6 billion dollars last year. The CEO says that its partnership with Yahoo! continues to be strong, and he is proud to bring Microsoft users the vibrant Yahoo! Content.

When asked about Bing and the search market, Ballmer proudly said that Microsoft has taken the number two position after Google with a 15% share of the market. When it came to the cloud market, Steve Ballmer announced that Microsoft is “All in, baby” and says that “Microsoft is beating Google on apps in the cloud”, but provide no data to back up the claim.

Steve Ballmer seemed to gloss over XBox, which has indeed seen much success. When it came to the phones, Ballmer said it was “hard to get excited about the Android phones“, without much explanation, but said that iPhone was “a good competitor” to Microsot’s upcoming Windows 8 phones.

It sounds like Steve Ballmer and Microsoft is indeed trying to take on every battle, despite his claim.