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Google launches Voice Calls service
Friday 27th August 2010, by Daniel King
Google is now offering a calls service to users of its Gmail service.
The search engine will enter onto Skype's territory, which has 126 million regular users registered to its call service.
Voice Calls will rival Skype's model, by allowing US and Canadian callers to make calls for free.
However, the internet giant will start from a much broader user base as it has around 200 million people registered for Gmail.
Gmail users in the US and Canada can also call UK, France, China and Germany for two cents per minute.
The company announced yesterday via Twitter that it had hit the one million calls landmark, within 24 hours of the service's launch.
UK users may have noticed the application in the chat section of their inboxes.
It was accidentally made available to non-US users, but the search engine has promised that it will be rolled out in the UK soon.
Costs of delivering the calls will be borne through advertising, as Voice Calls users will essentially be conducting these calls through their inbox.
However, industry commentators believe the move is intended to carve up social media territory for the company.
Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell told investors:"We assume Google's ulterior motive is less about disrupting the telecommunications and more about driving engagement within Gmail and its social-networking activities, to better compete with social networks such as Facebook."
The failure of its controversial Wave social network may have made the search giant rethink its strategy.
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