Parent-calling-avoiders of the world have never had it worse: Skype, Hangouts and FaceTime are all stellar and free programs that mean that you’ve got basically no reason for ignoring forgetting your parents’ wedding anniversary. But Firefox wants to add to that list, with a video-calling client that doesn’t even need an account.
Firefox Hello is built on an existing video-calling technology (WebRTC, if you’re interested), but it does away with the need for a separate client, or handle, or user account. Rather, it creates a link that you share with your video-calling partner, and Hello creates a secure link between the two browsers, and you’ll sharing slightly laggy and pixelated conversation before you know it.
As Gigaom points out, one of the most useful applications for Hello could be for anonymous video calling, whether that’s for people hiding from the NSA, or just two strangers on the internet who don’t want to share Skype handles.
At launch, the only constraint is that both parties need to be using the Firefox browser, but given that WebRTC technology is built into Chrome and Internet Explorer (not to mention being mobile-friendly), there’s potential for expansion down the line. [Firefox via Gigaom]