TokBox.com
TokBox differs in many ways from Skype and ooVoo. The service is a Web-based application that integrates with popular IM clients and requires no installation. Users simply create an account on the TokBox.com site and then use a Web 2.0 application to launch their IM session. Users can log in to AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger.

For video and audio communications, TokBox uses a custom Flash application, which can access the PC's Webcam and microphone. Users can launch one-on-one video chats or start videoconferences and invite multiple users.

One nifty feature of the product is the use of Adobe AIR, which works like a Web-based application for those without TokBox accounts. A TokBox user can invite non-users to videoconferences by sending a URL, which the invitee launches in their browser. That user then becomes part of the videoconference. As with the other videoconferencing products, users will need a Webcam, microphone and a PC that meets TokBox’s minimum specifications.

TokBox video quality is pretty good, although frame rates tend to drop off quickly when more attendees are added to a conference. Audio quality proved to be very poor—there was substantial echo and background noise. Those problems are solved by using a quality headset.

TokBox doesn’t offer many collaboration features, as users are not able to share desktops, run slide shows or use a common whiteboard. That said, there are plenty of third-party tools and services that can add those features using a mashup style of implementation. TokBox is definitely worth a look, but users should expect to use it like a multi-participant video chat service and not much more.