Micosoft's recent acquisition of Skype is emblematic of a global move to live video chat, says Janine Yoon, VP at San Francisco-based TokBox, provider of a free video chat API for publishers.

The program allows as many as  20 participants to appear in a screen at one time.

Soon, video chats will be recorded for later use, Yoon told Beet.TV in this interview last week at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. This will be one of several "premium" services to be rolled out this year, she adds.

Earlier this month, the company announced that it had released an API for WordPress blogs.

Andy Plesser