Home ›

Google Adds Phone Calls to Linux Gmail Use

Aug 31, 2010  By Susan Linton
 in
Google Phone

Five days after the announcement of Voice and Video Chat service in Gmail for Debian-based Linux distributions, Google unveiled a Gmail phone call service for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Rather than having both parties tied to their computers and logged into their Gmail accounts, one user can now call anyone in the US and Canada with telephone service. Google states that rates will remain free for the rest of the year and very low for international calls.

Google continues by saying that dialing from Gmail is just like using your phone. Just click "Call phone" in your chat list and dial the number on the number pad that appears. One could even use a contact name if there is a phone number associated with it. The browser plug-in has been tested extensively internally by Google and found to be quite useful. While Google Voice isn't required, it will provide certain benefits such as Caller ID and the ability to receive phone calls from inside Gmail.

Interested Debian derivative users can find and install the plug-in from www.google.com.

______________________

Susan Linton is a Linux writer and the owner of tuxmachines.org.

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Hello! Thank you for this

selviya's picture
Submitted by selviya (not verified) on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 10:31.

Hello!
Thank you for this post
is very interested ...
dialogue erotique , tarologie

Hello! Thank you for your

lora's picture
Submitted by lora (not verified) on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 10:30.

Hello!
Thank you for your welcome!
And your answer reactive
Thank you for these tips
voyance , Horoscope , telecommunication , magie voyance , Tarot Marseille , horoscope 2011

lkaufoiw

lincc272's picture
Submitted by lincc272 on Sun, 09/05/2010 - 19:03.

The new season again come, no matter you are tide male, or beauties,
or ordinary people. Choose came in! Here are not only the fashionable
and popular men's clothing and women's dress.And with beautiful shoe
tide packets can photograph collocation. Make a new you begin from here!
Has a good news to tell everybody: Recently,every bought full 200 US dollars
in this company, then has the present to see off,Vietnam which buys delivers
are more, please do not miss this good opportunity!!!
welcome to ::[ w w w .b i z b o y s e l l .c o m ]
(b..r..a..n..d.)s.h.o.e.s.(34u.s.d),,

==J. a .m .e )) shoes

< j o r d a n> (1-24) shoes

< j o r d a n> 2010 shoes

c.l.o.t.h.i.n.g,,j.e.a.n,,h.a.n.d.b.a.g(35u.s.d),,

==c .o. a .c .h )) handbag

(f.r.e.e)s.h.i.p.p.i.n.g

[ w w w .b i z b o y s e l l . c o m ]

us and them

akaSassinak's picture
Submitted by akaSassinak (not verified) on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 13:23.

U.S. only.

Privacy concern

blobfish's picture
Submitted by blobfish (not verified) on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 00:34.

Did you notice in the fine print that Google retains the rights to all the phone numbers you use?

great stuff

apexwm's picture
Submitted by apexwm (not verified) on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 11:13.

Just another example that Google is committed to providing cross platform solutions (in their best interest). It's good to see companies like this releasing useful software. Unlike Microsoft which is so closed door.

Kewl

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 10:16.

Great article. Great news from Google too.

RPM - Fedora\RHEL

Thomas Berisford - Tampa's picture
Submitted by Thomas Berisford - Tampa (not verified) on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 09:31.

Shoot it! What Repo are going to put it on?

What about RPM-based distros?

Ben C's picture
Submitted by Ben C (not verified) on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 08:09.

I don't think it would have been that hard for Google to package an RPM. In fact, later today I'll be building both Debs and RPMs of the same package!

You could just convert the

Cycron's picture
Submitted by Cycron (not verified) on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 20:29.

You could just convert the package to rpm with alien.

New RPMs up this morning

David Lane's picture
Submitted by David Lane on Wed, 09/01/2010 - 07:03.

Looks like Google heard the complaints...RPMs are available...

And no joy...installed them and it is still prompting for the plug-in...

David Lane, KG4GIY is a member of Linux Journal's Editorial Advisory Panel and the Control Op for Linux Journal's Virtual Ham Shack

Works on Slackware too

Sam Albuquerque's picture
Submitted by Sam Albuquerque (not verified) on Wed, 09/01/2010 - 05:20.

I repackaged the deb package for slackware using a Slackbuild script that I tailored and it has been working fine here as well. It's just that Google guys are a bit lazy to package for anything other than Debian.

Webcast
More Resources
How to Build an Optimal Hadoop Cluster to Store and Maintain Unlimited Amounts of Data Using Microservers

Realizing the promise of Apache® Hadoop® requires the effective deployment of compute, memory, storage and networking to achieve optimal results. With its flexibility and multitude of options, it is easy to over or under provision the server infrastructure, resulting in poor performance and high TCO. Join us for an in depth, technical discussion with industry experts from leading Hadoop and server companies who will provide insights into the key considerations for designing and deploying an optimal Hadoop cluster.

Learn More

Sponsored by AMD

White Paper
More Resources
Red Hat White Paper: Using an Open Source Framework to Catch the Bad Guy

Built-in forensics, incident response, and security with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Every security policy provides guidance and requirements for ensuring adequate protection of information and data, as well as high-level technical and administrative security requirements for a system in a given environment. Traditionally, providing security for a system focuses on the confidentiality of the information on it. However, protecting the data integrity and system and data availability is just as important. For example, when processing United States intelligence information, there are three attributes that require protection: confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Learn more about catching the bad guy in this free white paper.

Learn More

Sponsored by DLT Solutions