Yoomba - Turn Your Email Into A Phone

Web-based calling has been around for a while now, and it has developed quite a large following of users. Skype is the most popular and it has now become commonplace for people to provide their Skype name and to tell others, "Skype Me."

Despite this, still not everyone is using Skype (myself included) and calling is only free for Skype-to-Skype calls.

This is where Israel-based Yoomba is out to make web-based calling more universal. To accomplish this, Yoomba connects users using nothing more than their email address. It doesn't matter who provides your email or what free email service you use. Will it help web-based calling become universal?

Users of Yoomba can make calls or send instant messages to anyone with an e-mail address and a telephone headset. The service is completely free, no matter the location of your call, and it also has a voicemail feature for any missed calls.

Yoomba was started in 2006 by Elad Hemar and Ronen Babayoff, who initially self-funded the project until the company closed a round of financing with Global Catalyst Partners and US Venture Partners earlier this year. Since it's July launch of the public beta, the service has already managed to acquire 500,000 users. This definitely shows that web users want more compatibility between services, which the current choices fail to offer.

"People are tied to specific closed portals. If they want to talk to someone on Gmail, they have to register on Gmail, the same is true with Yahoo or any of the other portals. There is a lack of immediacy here. People can't communicate freely. We've got to a situation where people have to manage four separate identities and four separate address books just to talk to 20 people. That's not instant communication," stated Hemar, who remains optimistic about the future of the service.

Just as people have done with Skype, "it won't be long before you hear people saying 'Give me a call on my e-mail,'" Hemar proclaimed. "If you Yoomba enable your e-mail, it becomes like a phone number. You don't have to register a new identity, or learn new applications. The software works in Outlook, Outlook Express (replaced by Windows Mail in Vista), Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Google. You just click a button and make the call to anyone, even if they don't have Yoomba software. It's as simple as sending an e-mail."

Yoomba has a great focus for its service, which could give Hemar and Babayoff the attention that they will need to go head on against eBay-owned Skype.

Although, Skype was initially free and has since implemented fees for certain calls, the goal for Yoomba is to remain free of charge while turning to other models such as sponsorship and advertising for revenue. "This is what users want and the way the Internet works," explains CEO Elad Hemar.