The Kelsey Group’s Mike Boland posted on this on Friday: Skype, which has yet to prove full value for eBay, has launched version 3.1 that combines local search with social recommendations (and presumably later PPCall):
As part of Skype 3.1 Beta you can now use SkypeFind to recommend your favourite local businesses to your friends and the entire Skype community.
In May last year I argued that Skype could be thought of as a “social network with voice.” While this is one angle on what Skype is doing it’s a very interesting one. Ultimately voice for Skype is just an entry point into a larger play and ad model.
eBay is using Skype to facilitate buyer-seller interaction; and Skype and Google have an “infrastructure” deal that lays the groundwork for a broadening of PPCall on both networks.
Screenwerk 
January 4, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Hi Greg, I think that Skype is possibly well positioned to offer local social search. I’m involved in a project called The Brownbook (http://www.brownbook.net that is in the space. Crucially it also allows anyone to add any business and edit any business, a sort of wiki yellow pages if you will.
The whole peer-produced web concept is something that Don Tapscott writes well about in Wikinomics, also David Silver in Smart Startups. If you’re interested in more views on this subject, try our blog or our forum.
All the best
J