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Google Testing Voice Calling In Gmail
Tootech writes "Google could be adding the ability to make phone calls from the Google Chat interface. Google is testing a Web-based service within Gmail that will allow users to place phone calls from their in-boxes. It's launched from the Google Chat window on the lower left-hand side of a Gmail page and allows users to place and receive calls from within their contacts through a user interface that strongly resembles the one used in Google Voice."
this is great news. anyone know if it will be global, and not just US based ?
Perhaps Google takes this lesson from Wave's failure -- merge products together, don't dev them out on an island where they won't be used.
I bet this will go over like a lead balloon with their Android partners.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
This is great news! Now I'll be receiving ads for cheap pharmaceuticals on my voicemail. That'll be ever so much more convenient.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
The real question is how will they tie this into targeted advertising (their real business)? Is it just a screen where they can display ads based on the personal profile they have already developed or do/will they use voice recognition to do keyword searches based on conversation content? This is not necessarily tinfoil hat territory, the already do this with gmail. The text of a gmail message is scanned(*) for keywords so that they can do contextual (targeted) ads on your gmail page. Voice recognition is a difficult but interesting and fun research area that might appeal to some at google. It might be interesting to keep an eye on the end user agreement.
"Ad targeting in Gmail is fully automated, and no humans read your email in order to target advertisements or related information. This type of automated scanning is how many email services, not just Gmail, provide features like spam filtering and spell checking. Ads are selected for relevance and served by Google computers using the same contextual advertising technology that powers Google's AdSense program." http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6603
I've been using Google voice as my primary number for over a year now. It has it's downsides, but for a free service it's great. I like that I'm not tied into a single phone or carrier. No matter where I am, as long as I have a phone I can set it to receive calls.
I don't know how much I would even use calling built into Gmail, but I surely won't complain about added functionality. The problem I've found with using computers as phones is that you are tied sitting down in one location, most likely stuck with a headset on since using speakers would result in lots of echo. Applications like Teamspeak and Ventrilo make sense because usually when you're using them, you're already at a computer.
Voice recognition might be an option, but I think it's more likely that they'll get their revenue from charging for non-Gmail-to-Gmail calls (calling "real" phones) and attracting more users to Gmail (and thus Gmail's targeted advertising) with the new feature.
Calls would only be being placed with those in your contacts book. Your contacts would have to be poisoned first somehow, and not everyone who emails you is put into contacts unless you compose mail to them, or reply to them (ergo creating a discussion).
;)
PS: in a literal mood, but i did recognize you were being humorous
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I heard you like to chat, so we put a chat in your chat so you can chat while you chat.
Jesus had a UNIX beard.
I'm not sure (I didn't glean any actual information from TFA beyond 'gmail will add phone calls') but I suspect that the new web-based client-side calling software might be related to the existing web-based client-side calling software that is already integrated into gmail...
Not Javascript, I'm sorry to say - Netscape plugin.
If you could tie your google name to your google voice number, then instead of people getting your phone number, they could click on your user name, and then select call, it rings your phone, then when you pick up, it calls the other person. If that's the case, that would rock!
Kids today all think that their phones are basically just for text messages, not voice calls.
Now they'll think e-mail is for voice calls, not text messages.
What's next? Using the refrigerator to cook food and the microwave to store it?
Voice recognition is a difficult but interesting and fun research area that might appeal to some at google.
It sure is. Take a look at my last transcribed voicemail from Google Voice. (scrubbed for my name)
Hey **** HEB anything I do have my pen on me And I was stopping with Lia, emptied a Mac said paper cut, give me the following your friends with the Good day Bye. Bye. And. And then I got home and I saw your message, anyway. Dan that we met you. I would've been paid. But we are debt for beach tonight. If you are but she said she wants to start. What wanna start early early. So, I'm not sure what what that means, but I don't know, probably like. Talk to you Give me a call on my side it 3000 and voicemail. Bye.
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The problem I've found with using computers as phones is that you are tied sitting down in one location
Are you trying to make me believe there is life beyond my chair?
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Be ready for expensive data only plans though.
Right now, my Data is $25, my Voice $60, both unlimited.
But networks are actually using more data than voice, so the data only plan would be expected to be at least half that, if not more. I know I do.
180 * 60 seconds * 13 kbit/s * 30 = 500 MB, for 3 hours/day talk time, or 5400 minutes/month.
I generally go over 1 GB in data, and the voip isn't going to save them any, as it's still the same bitrate as the talk.
I doubt that many people use their phone three hours a day (I know I don't), the point was an extreme case. Consider this, max voice traffic possible is 4GB/month. They charge $40-$60 for unlimited voice, be ready to pay a lot for any reasonable amount of traffic, already the voice is essentially irrelevant, and probably wouldn't drop costs much at all.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
The thing I don't get is that they don't have any support for SIP (well, there is Gizmo, which is closed to just about everybody). They're inventing fancy web-interfaces for voice calls (anybody know if they work without flash?), but they can't support SIP - a protocol specifically designed to handle these kinds of situations. Indeed, if they used SIP and you ended up calling somebody else using SIP they could save all the bandwidth by directing the phones to just talk to each other.
It seems like Google is tending to take the MS route - they don't just want to provide a service, they want to control how you can access it. Sure, some of their products are more open - maybe they just can't figure out what kind of company they want to be.
Google - please just give us a SIP interface. I don't care if you even advertise it - just bury the settings in some help page and everybody else will build the front-ends for you...
Just compiled the latests asterisk from SVN and it WORKS! All my friends can call me at normal handset! I can now call my asterisk from GTalk! At zero configuration! RIP SIP! We barely knew ye... For technically minded: http://svn.digium.com/svn/asterisk/team/phsultan/gmail-voice-video
So what happens now that two of the 3 points they used to defend themselves against ATT are gone?
However, I am faced with a total cell hole disaster on AT&T's network, so anything at all would be a quality improvement!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
"Google is testing a Web-based service within Gmail that will allow users to place phone calls from their in-boxes."
this is great news. anyone know if it will be global, and not just US based ?
For now, it is U.S. based. From the GMail Blog:
We’re rolling out this feature to U.S. based Gmail users over the next few days
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Mom had a Coldspot cooker and a Hotpoint refrigerator.
I got the call phone in my gmail account. Does everybody or are they just giving it out to a few? I can call for free to the US and Canada, and they have pretty low rates for calling internationally, I every country I would ever want to call to, and more...
I've got 3 Gmail accounts (am in the UK) and it's there in 2 of them but not the other, which is kinda odd. It was only supposed to be on some accounts in error and "briefly" ... but mine is still there days later. Oh well, I'm not paying for the phone calls so I'll keep using it until they realise and turn it off I guess?