Google is all set to allow users to make phone calls from its popular e-mail service Gmail, a move that will intensify competition in the Internet telephone space.
With the new facility, Gmail users will be able to make landline as well as mobile phone calls from their e-mail accounts.
"Given that most of us don't spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, wouldn't it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones? Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail," Google said in a blog post on Wednesday.
The Internet giant's new offering would take the competition directly to Skype, which is one of the most successful Internet telephone service providers. Going by estimates, Skype has around 560 million registered users and out of them, over eight million are paid customers.
Currently, Google offers free voice and voice calls for Gmail users to communicate with each other.
The entity had also launched its call management programme, Google Voice, this year.
"Calls to the US and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates," the blog post noted.
Users have to shell out as little as two cents per minute for calls to countries such as UK, France, Germany, China and Japan.
According to Google, calls to India would be charged at six cents per minute. "We're rolling out this feature to US-based Gmail users over the next few days, so you'll be ready to get started once 'Call Phones' shows up in your chat list...," it said.
For using the facility, users would have to click 'Call phone' option in the Gmail chat list and then enter the contact number.
Google has been testing the new feature (call phone) internally and have found it to be useful in many situations, "ranging from making a quick call to a restaurant, to placing a call when you're in an area with bad reception," the blog post noted.
