This one blows me away, though it shouldn’t. I’ve come to expect amazing things from Google.

Please don’t interpret that comment as that I’m suddenly and un-apologetically in love with Google. I’m not. I’m pleased, but not in love. I’ve never been in love with any corporation.

First, ensure that you have a Gmail account.

You’re not using Gmail to make the call, but a side-feature of Gmail called Google Talk. It’s found on the left side of the Gmail window, listed under Chat.

Beneath the Chat heading, and the Search box, you’ll find your own name and then an option call Call Phone. Choose that item to make a phone call. Yes, a real phone call.

Choose the Call Phone item to see the dialpad. Of course, you’ll need to install a plugin if you’ve haven’t installed it already. Not only does the plugin let you make phone calls (by using the computer’s speakers and microphone), you can also make video chat calls to your Google Chat friends.

Yeah, and you’ll need to restart your web browser program after installing the plugin.

So, after setting everything up, eventually you’ll see the dialpad:

Punch in the number to dial using the dialpad, then click the Call button. Domestic calls are free. (I don’t know about Canada.)

For foreign calls there is a charge. As you can see in the figure above, there is a ten cent credit applied to your account. I don’t know how the International calling stuff works, what the charges are or how to get more money into the account, but I assume that downward-pointing triangle by the $0.10 has something to do with it.

On my iMac, the call went well, though the other person had trouble hearing me. That’s probably because I was using the iMac’s built-in microphone and not a headset.

Interestingly enough, the Call Phone feature is part of Google Chat which also features video chat. My guess is that you’ll probably see a video phone chat feature in the near future. Most likely it will be an update to the Android phone operating system. That would be cool.