Skype reveals why there's 5.5 AND 5.6

[rseiler]

I know I wasn't the only one wondering why Skype has decided to update two versions rather than simply moving onto the next point version as usual.

They say that it's to "compare user behaviour" (see below).  Any ideas what they might mean by that specifically?  If anyone needs a refresher as to what was added in 5.6 (it must relate to one of these, with the exception of the very last one):

-Screen sharing improvements

-New 'getting started' experience

-Small changes to the call controls

-The 'Call Phones' button has been moved

-Updated 'Click to Call' browser plugins

-In call advertising

-'Skype Home' UI improvements in compact mode

[kicks-mobil]

What about in-call advertising? Such an innovation imperatively demands marketing tests. "In this release we have introduced in-call advertising, which will appear to some of our non-paying customers [italics by kicks-mobil], during Skype audio calls. Users who have either Skype Credit or any of our subscriptions will not see advertising. Users have the option to hide the ad while on the call by simply clicking on the "Close ad" button."

blogs.skype.com/garage/2011/09/skype_56_for_windows_with_improved_screen_sharing_release_notes.html

On the German forum there was a complaint that with a call from PC to (skype on) a mobile phone, the usual sound while waiting for the callee was accompanied by an annoying music, title "one love". After some diagnostics without result, the user reverted to an older version. So his presumption remains undecided whether this was part of an in-call advertising.

community.skype.com/t5/Skype-für-Windows/Nervige-Musik-beim-Klingeln/m-p/201054/message-uid/201054#U...

For a better understanding, I'd be glad to be included in the sample of test users who get in-call advertising (for a test account only, of course ... ).

[rseiler]

That was my only thought too: the "user behavior" that Skype is watching is how many people downgrade from 5.6 to 5.5, though how could they possibly know why they downgraded?  Beyond that, I can't imagine what observed behavior with 5.6 would depend upon the continued existence of 5.5.

I hope the audio you mentioned is something unrelated, but it's surprising to me that I haven't seen any discussion about the in-call ads. Maybe they're rolling it out extremely gradually, or possibly haven't started it quite yet? Of course, most people, I bet, don't even know 5.6 exists, since the last time I checked it's not the version being pushed out.

[Claudius Community Manager]

The audio ringing tone is something totally unrelated (it's in fact not a feature of Skype but the mobile provider of the number called).

I'm also wondering why there is so little (almost none) discussion around the in-call advertisement although there should be quite a number of free users on 5.6 already.

[stefbardeux]

hi

last week i got an unknown missed event notification from a contact , when i clicked on it ,i only saw the messages that i had sent to him earlier but nothing from him ecxept that yellow notification circle on his name !! could that have been a missed call from this contact when i was offline?

[kicks-mobil]

sounds like a different topic. would you open a separate thread, please? cu there ...

[kicks-mobil]

---

Claudius wrote:
The audio ringing tone is [ ] not a feature of Skype but the mobile provider of the number called

---

amazing, however, that the old Skype version to which the user reverted, did not play that sound.

---

Claudius wrote:
I'm wondering why there is so little discussion around the in-call advertisement

---

In no phone call on 5.6, I ever got the ads.

Under what conditions should they appear?

Please, include me as a test user!

Could you provide a link to a description of the feature, giving more details than

blogs.skype.com/garage/2011/09/skype_56_for_windows_with_improved_screen_sharing_release_notes.html 

?

[need4steer]

Thanks a lot for this information.

I myself confused from the different versions that available to us from different download links.

There are 4 different versions that available through the link that Skype provide.

I opened 2 topic about it, one in this forums and one in the General Discussion Forums.

A screenshot:

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9653/skypej.png

More information at:

1. http://community.skype.com/t5/Windows/Different-versions-from-different-download-links/td-p/274154
2. http://community.skype.com/t5/General-Discussion/Different-versions-from-different-download-links/td...

[kicks-mobil]

---

kicks-mobil wrote:
For a better understanding, I'd be glad to be included in the sample of test users who get in-call advertising

---

In the last weeks, I saw a variety of advertisements in the Skype Home window and in the Video panel during connection establishment. But only on customers' machines - not on mine. 

Now the embarrassing part of my news: Only today, when I routinely updated the MVPs hosts file on my PCs, I got aware that it has always been containing the ad servers which are also used by Skype. Since the MVPs HOSTS file sends the ad servers to the nirvana of 127.0.0.1, that is the reason why I never saw any advertisement on my computers.

So if you too are using the MVPS hosts file, but want to see the ads, just remove the culprits:

127.0.0.1       ad.doubleclick.net   # skype home
127.0.0.1       ad-emea.doubleclick.net   # skype in-call
127.0.0.1       ads1.msads.net  

 

the embedded graphics will be visible only after approval by board staff

[ruwim]

Very interesting info. Something related to this:

http://motifcdn.doubleclick.net/EMEA/ad-in-a-box/skype-expanding-ad/guide.pdf

Just for one day, I was also “blessed” with ads in my home page, but just empty ads. However, this appeared to be a bug on the Skype server. Now, everything is back to “normal”.