Google launches Internet telephone service with free U.S. calls

Google Inc. unveiled a service on Wednesday that allows Gmail users to initiate free phone calls to the U.S. and Canada from within the e-mail product, directly taking on other Internet calling services and traditional telecommunications companies.

The Mountain View search giant is linking together its Google Voice call forwarding service with Gmail’s chat feature, allowing users to launch Internet-based calls through the Web browser and talk using their computer’s built-in speaker and microphone (or a headset if they prefer).

"Gmail is a great way to handle all your online communications and Google Voice is a great way to handle all your phone communications," said Craig Walker, product manager for real time communications at Google. "We thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could bring all these things together."

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