Facebook Launches Video Calls, Powered by Skype

Facebook finally settled the rumors on Wednesday. Through a partnership with <a href="http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home">Skype</a>, Facebook is <a href="http://www.facebook.com/FacebookLive" target="_blank">rolling out integrated</a> video calling to the public beginning immediately.

The new integrated feature will not require the separate Skype client, but instead, just a touted "under 30 second wait" on your first use to install, call and chat.

<!--more-->This all happens seamlessly within the website, too, so it won't disrupt your photo commenting session or 'like' rampage.

Facebook CEO <a href="http://www.facebook.com/markzuckerberg">Mark Zuckerberg</a> also announced group instant messaging and a design overhaul to Facebook IM. The design overhaul will bring a new "buddy list" sidebar to the site so that it's easier to start a conversation (finally!). Both features will be launched beside video calling.

If you're like us and are too impatient to wait until the rollout, you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/videocalling">set up video calling manually</a> and use it right now. So far, we're impressed, but what does this mean for competing Google+?

[<a href="http://www.facebook.com/FacebookLive" target="_blank">Facebook</a>]