The reason why many people I know like Skype is because it's aesthetics were pure and the usage simple. I've been an advocate of the Skype prior to 1.0 version and used to see a big future ahead of this software. Through my spread of word, I'm sure you now have at least 100+ users more!

Now things are going much more worse, disappointing. We've got more and more extras which we still can disable, but the application grows. It takes more resources and offers you a lot more than you really need. Soon some people will start using the word "bloatware".

I agree, video calls were bound to be implemented, it's a natural growth, but all those games, toys and gadgets plus PayPal's Send money and now video status messages or something... Ogh, it's just getting too much.

Guys, the reason why we use Skype is because it's reliable, fast and straightforward. You don't need to put more emoticons and gadgets. We love the emots you have, the number you offer is fine. This principle appies to emots/buttons/features/gadgets. Please stop adding gadgets.

We have actually switched to Skype to reduce number of distractions that we were experiencing with other IMs.

Well it is good to know that.
First of all a little clarification Extras are not part of Skype and made by the users themselves. So it is up to you whether you should use it or not. And of coarse you can disable them at any time.
As for the features which Skype as a company "puts in the box". We are not here trying to make it bigger and bigger. The main purpose of Skype is calling and I think it will remain so. I doubt that 220 mln people use it because of the extras. Also chatting has became an important part of Skype.
You had a simple question which I have a simple answer for. Why we make more features? Because you users ask us to do that. Simple as that. We do all we can to please the community and seeing as the demand for some features is big we just implement it. And we will be adding more and more although not 20 features at the same time usually we are talking about 1-2 major changes in the release.
Hope it clarifies a lot. I am a Skype user myself. Not as an employee but as an ordinary person myself. And I find a lot of features very useful. Sending money via PayPal has never been easier and I am glad we got it...

I would like to add a whole-hearted second to this opinion. Like many (probably most) Skype users, I have been a whole-hearted Skype missionary since the first time I used it, and I know that quite a few other people have become Skype users because of my recommendation. However, also like many Skype users, I have watched with concern and mounting dismay as the number of SERIOUS problems has increased with each new version of Skype since 2.5, and yet apparently all the development effort has gone into adding more and more "features" and "extras", and apparently very little effort has gone into making it reliable and robust.

The current Beta contains several examples of this. What the heck are "Skype Cookies", and why should I suddenly have to explicitly say that I don't want them cluttering my computer? And why are alerts from eBay and 1-800-FREE411 (whoever they are) ON by default? Previous releases have added Skype Live and Skype Find, which are the first things that I remove from the menus whenever I have to completely reinstall, not to mention the now infamous Skype "Extras" manager, which seems to cause at least 50% of the problems reported in this forum and will certainly never see the light of day on my computer again.

I assume that Skype is getting a lot of pressure from their new owners to "commercialize" the product, and create some revenue, but if all they manage to do is load it up with so much new junk that it becomes difficult to discern the original excellent product, and all that extra junk is so fragile and buggy that it breaks more often than it works in a new installation, then it will eventually be the death of Skype.

Just my opinion...

And we value opinions of our customers. Thats why we add more and more functions. As a person working in Skype I can tell you that our efforts are to eliminate bugs we have or problems we encounter. That is why we always release new and new versions. Not only because of the new features but also because of a lot of fixes.
Try and compare Skype to any other big company. Let's say Microsoft. It is the biggest one yet. Also under pressure of making new Windows versions. Now... how many users you think are complaining about Windows Vista which reminds of Windows Me in one or another way?
I am working in customer Support and I do all I can to point the developers at the problem and fix it in the shortest time possible. Which they do. But good wine takes time to make.
Sorry if you have found one of the best things in Skype not working for you. Or you just dislike it. Ask the forum people do they want Extras removed? Maybe Skypecasts? Skypefind? I personally don't think so. Although all opinions are respected I speak as a person right now we are not able to please everyone. It is as if we wanted to make a Magnet with two "-" or two "+". Not possible there should always be some people who do not like things and who like them. This is called Balance.

Although I must admit that I cannot answer anything about BETA because I have not investigated it too deeply
But I hope you understand that we try to do our best. And marketing or making money is not the main point here. I will not be quoting or saying anything as an official but our point is to connect people... (Sorry Nokia ) Skype is free to download so those who choose paying they do others just use Skype. thanks for the few minutes you spent reading this.

I honestly don't think you're making much of a favour to your line of argumentation by mentioning that you're already among the "big and bad", but among all the big and bad ones you still look pretty nice ;-) Honestly, I know that you're neither as big, nor as bad (if there's such a thing as a big-company stigma).

Because I'm a software developer myself, effectively managing a solution that has been on a market for almost a decade and having a group of established users, I sometimes face same dilemmas as you Skype people are facing... Let me suggest something...

Here's the most important suggestion I could ever make!
Do develop core telephony services. Continue delivering most stable versions of Skype and enhance SkypeIn, SkypeOut, and other telephony related services like Skype Transfers as the core of the application.

Wouldn't it be great to put animating stars and video messages just to make users say "wow"? Certainly so! You can keep adding features and please put things like "send window shake" (known from the MS Messenger) right on top of your agenda. I'm sure you'll find users who will appreciate the effort.

Do make the Skype Extras, Skype Find, Skype something and whatever your users "force" you to implement as completely unpluggable plugins. Wouldn't it be great to have a lightweight application sitting in your system tray area and having a peace of mind that it consumes only 5-10MB of your RAM? Certainly so!

In the meanwhile mainstream of users can enjoy fully bloated, dancing and singing versions with all the colours and gadgets, while the minority voicing their concerns here could go to some not-so-hidden settings and turn it all off, using the main functionality of the application during their office hours and not worrying about catchy colours or pop-ups just flashing in front of your boss making him certain you're being distracted by Skype.

The key words of the story are: "unpluggable", "plugins"

I would have to agree with the general idea of this topic. Skype needs to nail the telephony part, big time, before adding all of the "fancy stuff". Lately I feel that the telephony part has slipped in quality at the expense of other features.

I for one, as a business user, don't use any of the other add-on features. I disable them as fast as I can.

I am looking for a low-cost, dependable communications solution that I can take with me world-wide. I'm hardly ever in an office, and using SkypeIn and SkypeOut with DTMF so we can get into conference calls and PBX extensions are important capabilities that just simply have to work. Just today, using 3.2.0.175 I got so many complaints about call quality (and the effect of my SkypeOut on the entire conference call-echoes, etc.) caused me to use a different, higher-cost connection.

It may seem simple, but if you can't provide a high-quality, solid, bullet-proof (add your metaphor here) voice communications solution then we'll end up moving to somebody else.

Greg

I would like to add my voice to the crowd.

Reading what I've read in this thread, I am discouraged from upgrading to a new version,
particularly if the sound quality degrades.

I signed up with Skype for Voice chat and am about to try video as well, but if Skype adds
all kinds of eye candy and useless bells and whistles features or if it becomes overly bloated
in size, then I'm gone.

There are other providers, and VoIP technology is improving every day.

Keep your eye on the ball Skype.


proact10

Actually Voice & Video Quality is improved in each version. So trying out for yourself will be a good idea.