After teasing last week that today's announcement was going to be " ," Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg took the wraps off a partnership with Skype that brings video chat to the social network. The news also came with the unveiling of a new group chat feature for the site.

The announcement seem to take a swing directly at , which opened with a "Hangouts" feature that is similar to an online group conference call. Facebook's response to that is to work with Skype for its own group call feature.

That, say industry analysts, is a sign that Google+ may be sufficiently compelling to have Facebook glancing a bit nervously over its shoulder.

"The Skype deal isn't something they cobbled together in a week, but Google's announcement might have accelerated this a bit," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Gartner. "I don't think this takes the wind out of the sails of Google+. They're kind of different experiences."

Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, said Facebook just might have succeeded in taking some of the luster off Google+.