The online dating scene, if you didn’t already know, is a multi-billion dollar industry and has been popular for quite some time. It hasn’t hurt to have films like 1998’s You’ve Got Mail, with Megan Ryan and Tom Hanks. While the movie itself goes well beyond online dating, it makes up a core aspect of the film, and hence its name. TBS channel was showing the movie yet again, and sucker that I am for the subtle chemistry between these two actors, I watched it over again for the umpteenth time. It made me wonder how, or whether, the movie would have been different if VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone calling had been available back then.

Well, Nora Ephron hasn’t yet made a movie called You’ve Got VoIPmail, but there are online dating sites popping up that integrate Skype PC-calling into the website. One example is Verbdate.

With Verbdate, you first download the Skype VoIP software, create a Skype profile, then sign up for a free membership on Verbdate. When you build your Verbdate profile, you enter your Skype username. When someone has seen your profile, they can send you a member email. If they want to actually talk to you, they send you a “wink”. If you’re interested, you in turn give them your Skype username, and they Skype-call you at an agreed upon time.

It’s an idea whose time has come. Verbdate’s unfortunate flaw is that the interface seems kind of awkward. The Google Maps mashup is a great concept, but my attempts to try it, repeatedly, were extremely frustrating. The general idea is that you pinpoint your city location on the world map, and then search for someone fitting certain criteria and who lives within a certain radius of you. Great concept, poor execution. The result is that, in my trials, I kept getting people who were thousands of miles away. (The site is Canadian, based presumably in the province of British Columbia, where the Google Maps seem to default for your starting pinpoint.)

Still, online dating is popular enough - take Markus Frind’s PlentyofFish, which generates US$10,000/day in ad revenue - that I don’t doubt Verbdate will work out their glitches. Either that or someone else will come up with a better site, possibly one that utilizes the video calling capabilities of Sightspeed.

But I figure why use any of them when there are VoIP clients that can handle text, audio and sometimes video. One cool example is Sightspeed, a competitor to Skype and Gizmo Project. All three are both IM clients and VoIP clients. Thus, if you have a microphone and headset, you can make free VoIP audio calls to anyone running the same software.

In fact, Gizmo Project allows you to also contact people on specific other VoIP soft client networks. Unfortunately, Skype isn’t one of them, as they do not have an open interface.

On the other hand, if you want free video VoIP calling, free video email, and video conference calls with up to three other people, Sightspeed is the way to go. (Skype now has video enabled, but it requires a plugin, and their website does not make much effort to promote the video features.)

I’ve got ALL of the above-mentioned IM and VoIP clients on my laptop, and my fave at the moment has to be Sightspeed. While the free version does not let you do video conferencing, the paid plan is only US$4.95/m or $44.95/yr, which also gives you unlimited 60 second video mail stored for an unlimited time. The free plan gives you unlimited 30 second video mail store for 30 days.

Besides regular VoIP audio chats, you can do VoIP video calling, send video mail to one or more people - even if they are not Sightspeed members - or publish videos to a weblog. The latter two options are done by recording a new video message with your webcam and uploading it (free) to Sightspeed servers. If you are sending video mail, your recipient(s) will get an email with the appropriate URL link. If you want to publish the video for a weblog, Sightspeed will generate a URL link, which you can include in your blog.

Now if that’s not enough for you, anyone who is not a Sightspeed member can still have a video/ audio VoIP chat with you. Both the free and paid plans give you a free web page, where a plugin (IE 6+ only) lets them have a video chat with you.

I tried a cheapo USB “snake” webcam (< $100) on both Skype and Sightspeed and only Sightspeed picked up the signal. Neither seems to be able to receive video from my Palm Treo 650 - though I may have something on it configured incorrectly. (Skype provides a shortlist of Skype-certified webcams on their website.)

The interesting thing is that my laptop RAM is only 512 Mb and the webcam doesn’t function too well on it in other video capture applications (such as Snagit screen capture software). But the camera actually functions well enough in Sightspeed, even with my RAM usage maxed out. Still, I’d recommend either a gigabyte of RAM or dual processors, or both. (I have both on my desktop, and the videocam functions much better over there, but I kept that computer offline, so I haven’t tested it with Sightspeed.)

To put Sightspeed to the test, I called up their friendly Support Guy in audio mode first. I jokingly said that I looked really scruffy, not having shaved in days, and I wanted to see but didn’t want him to see me. He laughed and told me how to change my camera settings. I then called him back in video mode and it worked like a charm. However, I haven’t tested it in the other direction, where I’d be able to see the caller and they couldn’t see me.

I also recorded and uploaded a video mail and emailed it to myself. Very simple process. The email just contains a link, not the actual video. That’s true for blog use as well. I haven’t figured out if I can embed the video on blog, to make it viewable from there instead of having to go to the Sightspeed website.

I’m going to love this software, and you just might too. Now if I can only get my relatives across the world an Internet connection, I can see and hear them at the same time. The drawback is that Sightspeed does not currently allow you to communicate with other audio or video IM clients, so you may have to install several software packages like I have.

Sightspeed is available for Win 2000/ XP and for Mac OSX 10.3.9 and up.

VoIP phone service has arguably become of huge interest to the general populace, despite the problems Vonage has been having in the stock market lately. They’re the first VoIP-related company to go IPO, but they won’t be the last. Despite the popularity of VoIP service and softphone client software such as Skype, one of the drawbacks is the lack of a proper 911 emergency calling system.

The problem is that while a VoIP phone (soft or hard) could dial 911, there is currently no easy way to determine where the emergency call is coming from. Implementing e-911 service is something that the FCC in the US decided in 2005 to enforce upon VoIP service providers. A couple of companies have some solutions.

Dash911 offers an enhanced 911 emergency calling system for VoIP providers. At present, their coverage area covers the United States and Canada. According to the website, their system transports 911 calls over dedicated TDM/PSTN (Time-Division Multiplexing/ Public Switched Telephone Network) circuits instead of the Internet. Pricing info is on their site. 911VoIP in Canada and their US sister firm API offer a similar solution.

VoIP end-users (i.e., general public) cannot purchase these services from these companies. They must go through their VoIP provider, who decides which solution they are offering. That means that VoIP subscribers are at the mercy of their provider to have a reliable emergency calling system. I’m not so sure that this makes me comfortable. I’d rather have the choice in my own hands.

Personally, I was thinking of a different solution, one that involves GPS and GIS.  My idea would be to enable VoIP phones with a GPS chip. Electronic-privacy advocates might flinch at the ability of some third-party service to know where you are at all times. So I’m suggesting that this be a chip that can be enabled and disabled on demand. When a special 911 button is pressed, the GPS capabilities kick in, and a monitoring service picks up the signal via satellite. (When the call is over, the GPS turns off.)

The e-911 monitoring service then determines the location of the call via a GIS system, and the proper authorities are then notified. Keep in mind that each VoIP subscriber would be in a database run by the monitoring service. Like the 911VoIP service, medical data for the caller could even be kept on record.

Ideally, such a service could be a collaboration of a consortium of police departments, fire departments and hospitals across North America, run by an approved consultancy. But the likelihood of such happening is slim, given that department budgets are typically insufficient, and the amount of bureaucracy that would be involved.

Despite the current problems of Vonage, the VoIP service provider, and two class-action lawsuits, their chairman and founder, Jeffrey Citron is the half-billion dollar man. At least on paper. He put in $80+Mln before the Vonage IPO, which bought him nearly 50 mln shares at $1.71. Let’s see. I’m rounding, but since Vonage (NYSE: VG) closed at 11.79 on Jun 8/06, that’s about 50 mln x 12 = $600 mln. If the stock rebounds and goes up to $20, he’ll be a billion-dollar baby at only 35 years of age. And this doesn’t even include any stock options he might be entitled to.

Now before you get upset, this practice is fairly common for company founders and other execs, even employees. Although employees do not get as large a cut of shares, numerous employees of little old RIM (makers of the Blackberry PDA) for example, became millionaires after the company went IPO.

Employees at other tech companies in the Waterloo, Ontario, Canada area (home of RIM headquarters) have done fairly well for themselves. I know of at least a couple of people who quit their jobs and followed their private dreams. But their windfall doesn’t compare to that of employees of bigger American tech firms that went IPO.

However, Citron can’t enjoy his big bucks just yet. According to US Securities law, he has to wait 180 days after IPO. D-Day is thus Nov 21, 2006. Let’s see what happens to Vonage, and whether Citron sells any shares.

Mad Money TV show host Jim Cramer (on CNBC broadcasting) is promoting Netgear Inc. (NYSE: NTGR) as the phone that could make VoIP actually work. In addition to wireless routers, Netgear makes the “Skype WiFi Phone” which allows you to make free calls to other Skype users around the world.

That means you can talk to people with Skype running on their laptop/ desktop computer or have another Skype phone - all for free. Skype also recently announced free calls within the United States and Canada for Skype users to landlines/ cell phones.

To give a clearer picture, here are the types of possible phones calls, and whether there is a cost associated:

• Caller and callee both have Skype, either on a Skype phone or a computer connected to the Internet. No charge for calls.
• Caller and called both live in the United States or Canada and the caller has Skype but the callee does not. No charge for calls - newly announced.
• Caller has Skype but callee does not, and at least one party does not live in the United States or Canada. Skype offers worldwide calling plans under the SkypeOut and SkypeIn options. SkypeOut lets a Skype user call out to a non-Skype phone. SkypeIn lets a Skype user receive calls from a non-SKype phone.
• Neither caller or callee have Skype. This is of course the traditional situation pre-dating VoIP.

Cramer added that Netgear Inc. has over US$5 per share in cash reserve, and that the quality of their Skype phone was going to payoff starting early 2007. Thus, he implied that the stock is a recommended buy. Contrastly, he repeatedly called Vonage stock not just a dog but a mongrel.

To my knowledge, Skype does not offer software that will run on a smartphone or Wi-Fi enabled smart PDA (such as the Palm Treo 650 and 700 series). My take on this is that cellular providers better get on the ball and figure out how to offer their customers Skype or lose their holding in the huge mobile communications market.

Tags: Mad Money, Jim Cramer, CNBC, Netgear, VoIP phone, Skype phone, voice over internet protocol, Vonage