British Telecom recently bought Ribbit a silicon valley telecommunications company. Ribbit produced a platform to integrate telephony with web technology. Interestingly part of their stack is Skype, SIP-based VOIP, open chat protocols alongside the traditional telephone network. This technology fits nicely with what BT has been doing with webservices: web21c their webservice api to the telephone network. This technology means that the telephone network can be accessed from the browser. The API includes the ability to put together call-flows, allowing the user to create IVR facilities. Social networking might just be taking a step up.