Every once in a while a new feature is added to Gmail. The features are usually announced on a Google blog post and quickly picked up by the blogosphere. That's exactly what happened with Gmail's new "Call Phone" feature.
If you're a Gmail user, and you have the voice and video plugin installed, you'll see a "Call phone" option in the "chat" section of Gmail. To make a call, you just click the link and an overlay with a dial pad pops up. You can either search your contacts, or dial the number using the pad.
I've had a couple problems making outbound calls, where it says that the user I was calling ended the conversation, but the call was never placed. When this happens, I hit the "redial" button and the call goes through.
Since I have a Google Voice account, my local Google voice number is the number that is assigned to my gmail. On my other gmail account, I was assigned a number from Escondido, CA.
You can also receive calls from within Gmail. I had to set my Google Voice number to forward to Gmail Chat rather than my cell phone. When I place a call to my Google Voice number, I'm alerted to the call by a musical tone.
I've had a Google Voice number from before it was Google Voice, but I haven't used it that often. I think might change that. If only this was a feature a few years ago when I went on a business trip and forgot my cell phone. I had to buy Skype credits in order to make phone calls.
Right now, Google says that phone calls will be free to the United States and cost a couple cents per minute to other countries. Let's hope that it stays that way.
I can see this being a great tool for small businesses, especially since you can add a Google Voice "call me" badge to your website.
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