I logged into my Gmail this morning and was welcomed by a flagged pop up – make a call with GMAIL.

Now, over the last couple of months – if not years – Google has been playing with several ideas, and updates to both search products and others.

My thoughts – is Google taking on too much by this?  They are now challenging Skype for Voice over IP dominance.  And yes, Gmail (and probably with Gtalk) you can call Phones – land lines and mobile.

Is this useful?  Of course.  But many people who need such a service would already be using Skype  The only way that Google could beat them is by lowering the costs and been more competitive.

And they are – for the rest of 2010 calls within the USA and Canada are effectively free.  Calls outside of the country range from as little as 2c (US) per minute to around the 40c a minute mark for both land and mobile calls.

Right now, only time will tell if this will be hit or another black hole for Google.