Tech Blog

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The Google empire is at it once again, this time adding a new feature to its Gmail service. Now users have the ability to make phone calls to either landlines or cell phones from their computer while logged into Gmail.

The new feature shows up on your left hand menu as soon as you log into Gmail. After installing a voice plug-in (which you are automatically prompted to do) you are ready to make phone calls from your PC or laptop. The setup process takes about two minutes. Once you have followed the necessary prompts, you can click on the 'Call Phone' option and a keypad pops up on your screen. Naturally you can dial a number, sit back and chat till your heart's content...for free.

Google has made the service free of charge for all calls within North America. This includes calls to landlines and cell phones. If you plan on calling outside North America you will have to pay for the service which can cost anywhere from $0.02 a minute to Argentina, to $2.90 if you were to page someone in the Netherlands (only $0.02 cents if you were to call a landline there). The rate are affordable and seem to rival Vonage and many 'Home Phone' plans from Canada's telecommunication companies.

I spent quite a bit of time testing out the new service and I have to say the call quality is quite good, dare I say just as good as Skype. I only experienced a few audio drops and delyas while calling long distance. Even calls made to cell phones were remarkably clear. I did notice your number shows up in call display as a random long distance number which will not be recognized by the party you are calling. I suppose that could come in handy

The service is definitely being put to the test by users right now as it does go down from time to time. If you have a chance to try it out, let me know how it went! Would love to hear your thoughts.