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The much anticipated Skype 3.0 Beta is now available for download for those of you wanting to help them work out the kinks.  On the official skype blog, Jaanus discusses that the 3.0 beta should only be downloaded by “experienced users” while it’s still being developed.

Lots of new features made it into the new version.  Most notably are public chats.

They’re similar to the current private text chats and indeed, share large parts of the interface, but what public chats offer are better moderation controls, letting anyone join without being “added” and letting you have a link to a chat straight on your webpage, e-mail or any other place.

Really it’s the same thing that AOL has had for all of their existance.  The difference is that Skype has built in a lot more controls to their chat rooms.  More about the chats after the jump.

You can have open watercooler chats where anyone can come and talk, or you can have pressconference-style chats with lots of listeners but few talkers, or entirely closed chats where you will approve each joiner before they can even read the messages or topic. You can remove messages and remove unwanted folks from chats.

Read [Skype Blog]