Lab Exercise 15

Chrissy Woodward
Yahoo: woodward.chrissy
Google: cwoodward08
Skype: cwoodward08

YAHOO:
1. Photo Sharing
2. Voice- only calling
3. Video Chat
4. Instant messaging while video chatting
5. Gaming

GOOGLE:
1. Group chat
2. New Emoticons
3. Pop-out support
4. Flickr Slideshows
5. Offline messages

SKYPE:
1. Mobile calling available
2. Games
3. File sharing/ pictures
4. Media Snapshots
5. Contact Directory

*INTERFACE
Strengths
-Yahoo: Very user0freiendly. most people think icons are easier to understand and Yahoo uses a lot of icons to illustrate different aspects of there messaging.
-Google: Google chat is easy to understand and navigate, however, it can he confusing because it is within Gmail and not everyone has a Gmail account.
-Skype: You can play games while in the video chat/ share and show documents or pictures. Very understandable and easy to navigate around. I prefer Skype over Google and Yahoo because it is easiest to use.

Weaknesses
-Yahoo: Other people can call in at the same time and the pop-up is kind of confusing/ frustrating when you're already in a conversation.
-Google: Google doesn't have as many options as Skype or Yahoo does.
-Skype: Sometimes Skype can freeze and delay a conversation.

*EASE OF USE
Strengths
-Yahoo: Like I said earlier, very user-friendly with icons for people who might not understand computer language.
-Google: Google products are very user-friendly as well and also versatile.
-Skype: Skype is more consumer friendly I believe because it is made just for this use, whereas, Yahoo and Google has more going on.

Weaknesses
- I didn't find any weaknesses from either option because they were all very easy to use.

*SKYPE:
I believe Skype is more for the computer literate because it doesn't have as many icons, however, it has the best quality in my opinion compared to Google and Yahoo. You can personalize Skype with being "away" or "offline" and you can type in status update. It also shows if you have missed calls or messages which I think is useful when you're on the go. I also like the fact that you can share videos with each other. For example, if I wanted to watch a Youtube video I can share it and they can watch it to at the same time.

*GOOGLE:
Google chat is very easy to use because it is a part of Gmail, however, if you don't have a Gmail account it can be annoying to get on just for the video part. Although, if you do have Gmail, like I do, the chat is easy to figure out and it doesn't take up the whole screen.

*YAHOO:
Yahoo video chat allows you to switch, resize and move videos around as well as mute, put on hold or share files. In most other aspects Yahoo chat is most similar to Google chat.