Update: What’s the point of having a home phone now? I just canceled mine, thanks Google!

There comes a time when Google or Facebook  roll out a new feature/product that is really amazing.  Last week Facebook rolled out their new product called Places and I was waiting forever to start using it.

Google is in the spotlight now with their new integration of Google Voice in Gmail.  This is sooooooooooooooooooo sweet and changes the way we can communicate!  For those that don’t even know what Google Voice is, it can be summarized as:

Google gives you a free number, you give out to people, connect multiple phones to your account (home,mobile,work), when people call that Google Voice number all phones ring.

Here is one GREAT feature that Google has not really mentioned in their blog.  I use my Google Voice number for business and put it on my business cards.  So let’s say someone calls me, I got a few options of how I can answer this call:

• Home phone which is connected to my google voice account
• Mobile phone which is connected to my google voice account
• Computer (New users need to ADD this on your ‘Voice settings’ see below)

If I’m on my computer a popup will appear in Gmail (you will also hear a ringing sound) when someone is calling me.

So let’s say I am talking with this person on my computer and have to leave the house….now normally you would have to hang up and call back, not with Google Voice. I can press “*” on the keypad and my other phones will start ringing (home phone & mobile phone).  I can then answer the call from my mobile and hang up the call on the computer.  The caller will never know I even switched. How crazy awesome is that?????? No….seriously, how awesome is that?!??

In order to start using Google Voice + Gmail integration you need to install the plugin and you will see “call phone” appear under chat. Oh ya, most importantly to mention…..”Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of year” from Don Dodge’s blog (Google Employee). Long distance charges are really low.

Hmm…this makes me wonder why I need Skype anymore if I can do video/voice chat thru Gmail….