Google Voice Gets a Jump in Activity

It has been about a week since Google launched a new feature for Google Voice. Now users can make phone calls through their Gmail account. The new feature has caught on fast, with one million calls made within the first day, and now reports are saying there has been 10 million calls made during the first week. Google Voice users "will see calls made from Gmail will display this number as the outbound caller ID. And if you decide to, you can receive calls made to this number right inside Gmail," reports Google.

Google goes on to say in their blog that,"calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. We worked hard to make these rates really cheap with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan—and many more countries—for as little as $0.02 per minute."

Jim Rapoza of InformationWeek tested the new Gmail feature and says that, "quality has proven to be good in my tests and one very cool feature makes it possible to transfer an in-session call to another phone. So for example, if you start a call in Gmail on your computer and need to leave the desk, you can transfer the call to your cell phone."

It may have only been a week since it launched, but this new feature seems to be a great step for both Google and VoIP technology. The more options we have for cheaper phone calls, can open the door for cheaper business options as well as an easier way to stay connected to loved ones wherever they are.