Read my mind

Voice as an application is not a new thought, but voice as part of the rapidly expanding social network fabric is something to which service providers need to pay attention. Social networks have not only captured the youth market but are rapidly spreading into the business market and moving into the mobile market as well.

As my colleague Rich Karpinski explains this week, already Facebook has voice apps from a range of vendors such as Jajah, Jangl, RebTel, Truphone and YackPack, as well as a newcomer BabyTEL.

Of course, the voice market has been heavily fragmented by best-effort VoIP players such as Skype, as well as services such as Yahoo! Messenger and AOL that combine instant messaging and voice.

Interestingly enough, however, the appeal of those offerings that promised a single mailbox for voice and data calls hasn't been so strong that they have overtaken voice services, which many of us thought would happen.

At least, that's my perception. But then, I am still using my business VoIP service and the fancy IP phone that sits on my desk in much the same way I have always used my business phone. The access to directories of phone numbers is nice, as is the ease of doing basic functions such as call-forwarding, but I'm not doing anything more sophisticated than that, which probably means I'm missing the boat.

So, here's your chance to tell me what I should be doing that I'm not. Don't expect me to start using Facebook and BabyTEL or one of those other strange-sounding services, because I'm not taking that big a leap. But I would like to know what you are using that taps VoIP's potential and makes your life easier.

Send your best ideas to carol.wilson@penton.com -- but be sure it is something you are actually using, not just something you are selling.