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Make free phone calls via Gmail

Along with all the other stuff you can do in the World According to Google, you can now make phone calls. While you may be used to searching the web, viewing breaking news, using Google Docs productivity tools, and of course taking advantage of the the omnipresent Gmail service, you can now make free phone calls.

To take advantage of this service, simply log into your Gmail account, open the Chat menu, and click on "Call phone". This service takes advantage of the Google Voice infrastructure to let you complete calls–free to US and Canadian numbers–right inside of Gmail. You do need to install the voice and video chat plugin for your browser, which is compatible with systems running Linux, Windows XP and later, and Mac OS X (Intel only, not PowerPC). Once you've done that, you can start making your free VoIP calls.

Google anticipates that this service will remain available (and free) through at least the end of 2011.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 31st, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Useful Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Make free phone calls via Gmail”

  1. verizon wireless sucks Says:
    July 28th, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    free?

    “free” only COSTS privacy

    asshat interweb surfer: What does that mean, verizon wireless sucks?

    verizon wireless sucks: Google BRIDGES call legs.

    asshat interweb surfer: huh?

    verizon wireless sucks: When you mash a phone number into Google Voice, or the phone widget in gmail, say, oh, like 800-444-3333

    (1) google dials that number
    (2) google dials your “forwarding” number
    (3) google stays on the line while the two are connected
    (4) google STAYS ON THE LINE DURING THE ENTIRE CONVERSATION

    asshat interweb surfer: why?

    verizon wireless sucks: how does google make money? ads. Not just any ads. google monitors users, everything they search, all their relationships, all their behavior. google offers “free” voicemail transcription. It is obvious that google is mining the voice conversation to better show you ads in the future. they transcribe all google voice calls internally and save those forever. it is in google’s best interest.

    asshat interweb surfer: but their privacy policy doesn’t mention it. they have a do no evil policy

    verizon wireless sucks: riiiiiiiight. would you like to buy a bridge? ads served by a small number of servers across EVERY page you visit by DESIGN violates your privacy. that is very evil.

    this “free” service COSTS waaaay too much!!

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