The Top 25 VoIP Advances of 2009

There were more advances than true innovations in the VoIP world in 2009. That's because some of the most important developments had more to do with commercial and political maneuvers than with technical creativity. Still, such maneuvers often helped spread the benefits of VoIP as much as did technical innovation. And collectively, the advances brought some already-evident trends into clearer focus. A key such trend is the increasing integration of voice with other applications and services. Another is the intensifying interest in HD voice. A third is the growing interconnection of VoIP services, in part in response to the possibilities that end-to-end HD voice offers. With such trends as background, here, in no particular order, are our top 25 VoIP advances of 2009.

TokBox Video Conferencing Adds Online Collaboration Through EtherPad Tie-Up

From the start, TokBox had real possibilities as a communication tool for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs. The free service offered users the ability to make video calls to one another using just a browser, Web cam and perhaps headset (to decrease echo). Initially, though, the San Francisco startup seemed more interested in appealing to consumer than business users. Now TokBox has moved to exploit its business potential. A newly announced tie-up combines its video conferencing service with the equally easy-to-use online document-sharing service of EtherPad.