Just thinking what Google’s OpenSocial could lead to. If there are common APIs then I guess one voice softclient fits all. If an ASP’s VoIP softclient works with Orkut, it will work with XING, MySpace, LinkedIn … the whole lot. You are therefore likely to see a bunch of voice clients being offered as options on these sites but one or two being promoted actively. That gives social networking companies more power because they can have a bigger say in who they promote and make serious money in the process. So expect eBay to keep spending on Skype for a while.
Standardization of APIs will lead to commoditization. Apart from seeing guys like Facebook in ETSI working group meetings, features available on social networking sites will become commoditized. One of those features will be voice. This will no doubt result in more robust and off-the-shelf social networking software platform available out there that comes pre integrated with telecom applications. So will the likes of Sylantro and Broadsoft start developing social networking features or will they just opt for partnerships with some developers? Well, either one of the options will do. But they are likely to respond quick.
The question then becomes this: In the face of commoditization where do the social networks differentiate their offering? They cannot stay proprietary for ever because standardization will eventually force them to open up their platform. One obvious way to differentiate is on the basis of quality That will force social networking sites into some sort of a paid model, which in turn will push them into offering pay services such as voice. So we could finally replace telcos with social networking companies who host telecom applications. But then why were the first generation of portals like Yahoo not able to do that?
As with voice, the same as above could happen to other hostable applications like TV and the lot.