Hands On With New Gmail Voice Feature

Harry McCracken says the quality of Gmail voice calls to regular telephones is quite good, but finds a few annoyances, flaws and areas that could be improved.

"I've been using Gmail's new free voice calling feature over the past couple of days. For a while, I thought that the Google Buzz blowup proved it was a bad idea to introduce non-e-mail features into Gmail, period. Now I now that if it's the right feature done the right way, it can make perfect sense.

Quick notes: The quality-on the calls I've made so far, at least-is sensational, and seemingly so on both ends. I hear the other party just great, he or she hears me, and there's zero lag time. All using the microphone and speakers built into my MacBook, no headset required. It's like having a speakerphone, except I've never encountered a speakerphone that sounds this good."