In spirit of the holiday season, Google is feeling mighty generous to all of its Gmail users. Google announced this morning that it will extend free calling to all of the United States and Canada, through 2011.
Gmail calling works like a regular phone, but through your email account. You simply select a contact or dial a number, and start talking to the recipient. The free service was originally intended to be cut off at the end of this year, but Google has offered to extend Gmail calling until December 31, 11:59pm 2011.
Gmail calling doesn"t just do voice, but it also allows you to video chat with supported webcams and cell phones. Gmail calling also does international phone calls too, for as little as $0.02 a minute.
If you haven"t tried Gmail calling yet, give it a try by logging into your Gmail account and selecting "Call phone" on the left hand side. You can also get the desktop client for Windows, Mac and Linux for free here.