Web conferencing is becoming more and more popular for its ability to connect people from all over the world. Not only are businesses finding value in it, but educational institutions, among others, are also finding that webinars allow for many opportunities.

For these reasons, SlideShare, the presentation-sharing site, recently announced Zipcast, which is its own version of web conferencing. The service is free and enables users to connect with just one click. As Rashmi Sinha, the CEO and co-founder of SlideShare, explained to WebProNews, web conferencing was a natural extension of SlideShare’s services.

“It was kind of an obvious idea when you think about SlideShare because it’s just presentations shared instantly – that’s what meetings are a lot of the time,” she said.

Although there are other players in the space such as GoToMeeting and WebEx, Sinha said that Zipcast is entirely different than the other offerings. For starters, Zipcast doesn’t require a download. Users can simply go to a url in their browser and avoid technical errors.

The Web conferencing service was built using HTML5, which allows for the fast and seamless user experience. Zipcast is also very social and is integrated with both Facebook and Twitter. In addition, it includes video as an essential feature.

At this point, SlideShare offers a free version of Zipcast, just as it does with its presentation service. It also has a premium model for $19 per month that includes additional perks.

“We think that there is a space here for the simple, social online meeting system that we’ve introduced and that the market is more than ready for it,” said Sinha.