Video Chat Services Let You Converse Face-to-Face

VIDEO CALLS ARE a great way to communicate. You can talk to and see remote colleagues, clients, friends, and relatives. You can trade files, leave messages, and text chat, as well. And with ooVoo or Skype, you can do all of that (and more) for free.

These Voice-over-IP services also let you place calls to landline and cell numbers, a feature you must pay for. (Advanced features, such as multiparty videoconferencing are other paid options. You can't call 911, however.) In my tests, Skype's audio and video quality came out slightly ahead of ooVoo's.

ooVoo 2.0
The free version of ooVoo supports voice and video calls with other ooVoo users, and lets you have two of three people on a call. You can record video messages, set up a video chat room and share files (up to 25MB). too.

The app, decked out in black and silvery-gray hues, makes finding what you need easy. In the default video-call window, the well-designed, angled video screens are the same size and sit side by side.

Video streams were generally smooth with little distortion, though the skin tones seemed bland. Audio quality was mostly sokid: Voices were clear, but I noticed a considerable amount of echo.

Unfortunately, the free version of ooVoo sports garish ads that span the bottom of the videoconferencing window. Ads appeared in the text chat windows, too.

Friends who do not have ooVoo software installed can now call you over the Web. Within ooVoo, you click a button and type your buddy's e-mail address and a message. Your pal can then call you, via their browser. As long as your friend has a Webcam, the same video-call window pops up, and the experience is identical to that of a regular video call.