Google has announced that Gmail users can now make phone calls over the internet, leading some analysts to question the search giant’s motives.
Gmail has offered audio and video conversations for more than two years, but the new service now allows users to make calls to mobiles and landlines.
According to BBC News, calls in the US and Canada will be free until the end of 2010, with calls to the UK, France, Germany and China costing 2 cents per minute.
Initially, the service will only be available in the US. A link to the feature will be placed on the left of the Gmail page, inside the ‘chat’ window. A ‘call phone’ option will appear, accompanied by a number pad allowing users to make phone calls.
The move will inevitably see Google go head-to-head with Skype, which has dominated the internet calls market for a number of years. However, Wired suggest that content generation site Facebook may be Google’s real target.
Facebook is currently one of the first online destinations for internet users, and as Google looks to make its own services a central part of the internet experience, keeping pace with the US-based social network is of key importance.
“Starting today [Wednesday] you can call any phone right from Gmail,” Reuters quoted Google software engineer Robin Schriebman as saying.
“We’ve been testing this feature internally and have found it to be useful in a lot of situations, ranging from making a quick call to a restaurant, to placing a call when you’re in an area with bad reception,” Schriebman added.
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