Under Microsoft's acquisition of Skype, the video conference call provider said it would "support Microsoft devices 'Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities." With such little to go on, the online ad community been speculating on what the deal could mean to their industry.

Will Skype, for example, be embedded in Hotmail, a service that Microsoft has been upgrading over the last year?

Now there is talk that an ad platform Skype launched earlier this year may be the jumping off point for a more robust offering. The product, which debuted with Groupon, Universal Pictures and Visa Inaugural as the first advertisers, was designed to be inconspicuous with consumers only seeing the ads occasionally - typically one ad from one brand per day in each of the markets where advertising is being sold - with the ad itself appearing on top of the video service.

It has not yet taken advantage of the more lucrative video advertising model, The Telegraph pointed out - an area that the executives from both companies made a point of emphasizing as they announced the $8.5 billion acquisition. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, for example, talked about the huge revenue potential of video advertising.

Tony Bates, Skype’s chief executive, said, "we think advertising is a powerful monetizing stream for us." (via the Telegraph).