If you’re like me, you probably think the internet is the best thing that’s happened since sliced bread. The internet has helped you accomplish many various tasks and seen many sights around the world that you otherwise would not have been able to access. It’s also been able to connect you to old friends, new acquaintances, or just various people you meet in the abundant numbers of social networks. And so you add them onto your favourite instant messaging application, and you realize that text can only take you so far: text is great, but I think hearing someone’s voice is just on a completely different level.

Skype is no newbie to the world of voice-conferencing. Sure, there are many applications out there that can perform similar tasks: Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, and Skype’s arch-rival Gizmo. But, I still think that Skype gets the job done best.

As my cousin lives across our vast country of Canada, we have this obstacle to cross whenever we want to communicate. Until recently, we mainly used Windows Live Messenger to chat: then, he introduced me to Skype and I grew to enjoy the convenience (of course, no singing along to music anymore). I found a microphone in my closet and plugged it right into my computer (you can purchase a decent microphone at your local electronics/computer retailer for probably around ten dollars).

Now you might be thinking that you can do this with something like Windows Live Messenger. But would you be able to hold a conference call with three people? I discovered that this was quite a hindrance, as I was chatting with a few fellow APH members. So I happily booted up Skype to find out that this was a feature – and within a couple of seconds, I was able to connect and chat with them.

Skype sure is convenient! You can even call land-lines if you are lacking a phone (for a fee, of course). And best of all – Skype is free! It’s both free money-wise and spyware-free, so you won’t have to worry about installing unwanted software (actually, keep an eye out for Google toolbar, but that’s not exactly spyware).

You can download Skype at it’s site: http://www.skype.com/