Gmail: Now Making Your Phone Calls, Too
Today, Google took one more step toward world domination when they announced that people will now be able to make phone calls through Gmail. This feature means you can receive phone calls with your Google Voice number, place calls as you normally would but through Gmail (which you're probably always on anyway), and switch between your cell phone and Gmail when cell service is spotty. Yes, if it works properly, it's pretty genius...for everyone except phone companies -- and Skype.
Google Voice launched last year with a limited amount of numbers at first. Early adopters scrambled to sign up for the waiting list. Some people even bought and sold numbers on eBay to be part of the revolutionary phone technology. Then, it never quite panned out. An agreement with iPhone and AT&T could not be reached and people stuck with their good old-fashioned cell phone packages.
Mashable, the techy site whose job it is to go bananas over announcements like the one for this integration is, well, going bananas, taking live notes from this morning's press conference. The site also posted that Google will be installing promotional telephone booths at airports and colleges to draw physical attention to the digital invention, but that a Google Voice iPhone app is still not possible.
Now, here's Google's cutesy cartoon demonstration, which is vaguely reminiscent of an Apple commercial.
Anyone have the "Call phone" tab showing up in their Gchat yet? Let us know!
[LM]
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