Free Webcam Video Service

If you have a webcam, you can use a free service like Yahoo Instant Messenger or other chat programs to actually see who you're talking to on the phone.  You can see them and they can see you.  (Back in the day, a popular program was CUSeeMe -- the CU stood for Cornell University which invented it.)  You can pick up webcams very inexpensively for less than $30 usually.  There's another webcam sharing service, that's free, that you might want to try out.  It's call MeBeam.com.  Just go there, make up a name for a room (like "videoforyouandme123" and away you go.  Everyone you invite just puts that URL address in their browser and they can meet you there instantly and you can see each other.  Granted, this is NOT the kind of service you want to use for a professional application -- we offer the that service for a price -- but for casual everyday use, MeBeam.com is pretty good and you can have a lot of fun with it.  Families would like using it to allow grandma to see the grandkids, or those in the military to see loved ones at home.  All in all, pretty good for free!