Gmail Voice Extended Throughout 2011

Google has extended their trial of Gmail Voice through the remainder of 2011.

Launched back in August 2010, gmail voice is an extension to gmail which allows users to call standard telephone numbers in Canada and the USA directly from gmail for free. Calls to other countries can be made for low rates. It achieved remarkable early success, as 1 million phone calls were made in the first 24 hours alone. 10 million calls were placed using the service in its first week.

Intended to be a market test, Google stated that they wanted to keep the service free for Canada/US calls, but needed to be able to justify it through some kind of revenue-generating business case. Apparently they found enough of one to warrant extending the service through 2011.

If the user has a Google Voice account, that person can also receive phone calls through their web browser. If the user does not have a Google Voice account (non-US users), the user will not be able to receive incoming phone calls to their browser.

I personally tried it on my laptop to make a call over wireless-g wifi and my home 15/1 cable connection and had issues with the sound cutting out and the connection dropping. Skype worked just fine immediately after however. I admittedly haven’t given it too much of a trial however, but am hopeful that it will become more usable.

Oh, and unfortunately it doesn’t work on mobile phones, at least not on my iPhone4.