Free calling in Gmail extended through 2011 | Hacker News Reader

Free calling in Gmail extended through 2011

gmailblog.blogspot.com

56 pointsUncle_Sam19 comments

I, for one, think this is awesome. Thanks Google!

I'm usually using SkypeOut, but it's great to know that I have a free backup plan always available wherever I have access to a microphone.

I actually cancelled my Skype subscription and use this instead. I just wish Google Voice had tighter integration with the Gmail interface.

I'd probably cancel skypeout too if we didn't use Skype to IM and run chatrooms at my (virtual) workplace.

This service is enormously convenient. I think I would be happy to pay one or two cents per minute of calling time. But I wonder what their long-term pricing idea for this would be.

Dunno, but this tells me the option isn't gaining users as fast as they need for sustainability. And most people they're targeting already get free US calling through mobile networks. I'd bet this is the loss leader to building a base of people who pay for international calling.

Free US calling through mobile networks?

haha, thats a bunch of words that do not belong in a sentence together.

Rephrase; for most of their targeted audience the marginal cost of mobile to mobile calls inside the US is already $0.

Marginal cost is what matters, and in this case many US calls are already near free for the segment that would be most likely to adopt.

Perhaps US calls will stay free, but you may have to listen to some targeted advertising in the future?

Perhaps they'll just use voice recognition to listen to your conversation to improve their ads.

In recent month it feels more and more like a choke-hold from google. I can't help it, and it drives me to alternatives like bing, ff or skype.

It feels like google is preparing a big move in 2011. It wants more data ... it always does. Gmail does not cut it anymore, and for that reason they push voice to get some numbers for a social grid. I guess they learned with buzz that your email address-book has little to do with your social space, and people don't email their friends, they post status-updates, twitter something or send two lines via fb. So they buy themselfs into your phone habits.

I can't believe how often I see chrome ads while surfing the web. It's the only browser that does so, trying to build momentum for something.

Don't get me wrong, I love the fight, and it will help to make the skype(-ui) not look like crap for another 5 years.

I guess what I'm looking for is some innovation, not just another sales channel for something. Cheap is good, but sometimes it's just not enough.

I read your incoherent rant several times and I still can't figure out what you're going on about.

Perhaps those Chrome ads you see are simply Google filling holes in their ad inventory?

(does this even happen to them?)

For what its worth, IE9 and Opera both place banner ads on Reddit.

this rant is ridiculous. Just don't use google then, why are you even talking about this. Take action and stop using google products, there are plenty of alternatives in every space that google is.

Google is good and makes good products, but they're too good at it, so you question their motives? How about a healthy dose of questioning their motives while enjoying the software that the provide?

You offer no suggestions as to why, what, is going to happen when, and how. You're just waving your hands around it the air going "ooooooogabooooga".

Google isn't innovating? Take a look at their 2010 to see what all they've been doing. 3 major releases of Chrome that make it the most technically impresive browser available, Android's further explosion, Chrome OS (literally just received a notificaiton from ChromeDeck running as a background app in Chrome). You're either not looking, or are looking with your eyes half closed. And an immediate downvote, cool!

Interesting that the free calls are only for US-based users. They don't want to give too much away, and maybe Google figures the US-based folks will get their friends and family abroad hooked on the service and then they'll be willing to pony up real dough in the future.

The free calls are to the USA. I get free calls to the USA from Australia.

I use Google Voice, and I use it mainly for international calls. Cheaper than most other services, and I like how easy it is to use. So Google is already making money off me :P

I hate Skype for Linux, but SkypeOut has been far more reliable for me so far than Google's Call Phone feature.

I use this feature almost every day, it's really great for me. My girlfriend and I also have only one one cell phone between us at the moment, and we use it to call eachother.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com