VOIP OUTFIT, SKYPE which, at the end of 2007, claimed it had 276 million registered users worldwide has recently come up with a new big number to wow the world with.

Skype claims its users have yapped to one another for over a 100 billion minutes on its Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls since launched in 2003.

If the people down in the Population Reference Bureau are to be believed, then 100 billion humans have walked the earth since the dawn of time, then Skype's stats would translate to one minute of Skype VOIP talk for every man, woman and child that ever existed. Ever. Also, if the people down in The Physics Fact Book are to be believed, the human brain has approx. 100 billion neurons, which equates to one piece of grey matter used for every Skype to Skype call.

Since Skype is only about 2,365,200 minutes old (4.5 years), it seems quite an achievement that chatterboxes around the globe have managed to rack up the equivalent of more than 69,444,444 days (or 190,258 years) of talk time. A Skype press release eagerly boasts that "if a woolly mammoth and a sabre-toothed tiger had started talking for free on Skype, they would still
be chatting away today…and with 40,258 years to go!"

As for Skype's next milestone goal; Well, according to its blog, skype is aiming at the modest target of a measly: "one billion, gagillion, fafillion, shabolubalu million-illion yillion Skype-to-Skype minutes." µ