Google unveils new Gmail Google Voice Calling feature

Starting today, Google is giving you the ability to call any phone from your computer through Gmail. All you need to do is download a plug-in app on to your computer and you can dial phone numbers straight from your Gmail screen.

Granted, if you have your mobile phone with you, why would you bother using Gmail to make a call? Sure, you could have a weak signal at the house for your mobile phone or you just don’t want to get up from behind your computer to get your phone. Regardless, it’s neat to have the ability to place a call through Gmail.  This is the next iteration of Gizmo5 technology and is another good improvement to the Google Voice service.  This puts Google Voice as a Skype competitor now, because people don’t need access to their phone to make and receive calls anymore.

Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of this year with calls to other countries being charged as little as $.02 a minute. If you have a Google Voice Number, calls made from Gmail will display this number as the outbound ID. You can also choose to receive incoming calls to your Google Voice Number through Gmail.

The new calling feature will be rolled out to Gmail users over the next few days and when active, you’ll see a “Call Phone” feature listed under your chat column. You can get all the details at http://gmail.com/call