Gmail adds computer calling feature


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It’s true. Google is taking over the technological world.

We’ve already experienced the fail-proof Google search engine, Google Maps, Google translate, Google smart phones and Gmail to name a few. There’s even been industry buzz about a Google television in development, which has all the cable companies in shivers.

And to add to this long list of Google domination, the officials at the conglomerate announced something new and exciting, yet not completely unprecedented: free phone calls.

You better believe it. Google added Google Voice capability to its email service on Wednesday, allowing users to place phone calls from their computers through their Gmail accounts. Google Voice is free for domestic and Canada-bound calls, though international calls rake up minimal charges.

For some, this might not come across as anything new or impressive — Skype and iChat have long since popularized this service years. But Google’s newest functionality is yet another innovation to look forward to.

Correction: 8/29/10- A previous version of this blog entry read “Google launched Google Voice Wednesday — a service that allows users to place phone calls from their computers through the Gmail service.”  Although Google Voice’s Gmail calling feature was introduced on Wednesday, the actual Google Voice service has been available since March of 2009. This entry has been corrected to reflect the changes.

1 reply
  1. marshall
    marshall says:

    Google Voice came out about a year and a half ago and is a completely different service from what you described. Google Voice is essentially a sophisticated call forwarding service. Please get your facts straight – a simple look at Wikipedia could have helped.

    What you described is simply a new feature for the chat engine built into Gmail, not Google Voice.

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