Are Soft VoIP Clients Obsolete?

While IM (Instant Messaging) clients with VoIP capabilities are immensely popular (used by several hundred million people collectively), they may be left behind by a new generation of soft VoIP plugins that work within other applications such as web browsers. You see a phone number on a web page, click on it, and a call to that number is initiated – directly from your web browser. Such soft VoIP plugins have been popping up and might just proliferate.

At least that’s the way that Bruce Stewart and Ken Camp see it, while discussing Luca Filigheddu’s VoIP extensions for Firefox and Thunderbird web browsers (Windows, Mac OS X and Linux). While I still think we’ll have loads of people using soft VoIP clients (maybe from cellular and VoIP WiFi phones), I don’t doubt we’ll see more soft VoIP plugins. To wit: two gaming companies announced VoIP features in their RPG (Role Playing Game) software. One company offers an actual MMOG (Masively Multiplayer Online Game), called Fallen Earth, and the other offers a developer’s kit to build such games.

We live in exciting VoIP times, with all kinds of opportunities to develop our own add-ons for IMs and other applications.