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I'm sure you remember hearing about making phone calls with your computer about five years ago. The companies that provided those services quickly faded because the call quality was terrible. Now that broadband internet is so common, placing calls over the internet (also known as Voice Over IP, or VOIP) has gotten better, much better. I'm sure you've heard of Vonage and the other VOIP service providers that offer great home phone service at much better prices than your old local phone company. I think if you want to save some money, then by all means give them a try. What I'm interested in, though, is VOIP that's free. That's where Google Talk and Skype come in.
Google Talk and Skype are both free services that are much like AOL Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger, but with voice chatting as well. They both have the familiar instant messaging interface. You can chat with and call people on your buddy list. When you call someone, it actually causes their computer to "ring" (of course, that person has to have their computer on and be online). You can use the speakers and microphone that came with your computer, but you'll have much better results with a dedicated headset. You can spend between $5-$150 on a headset. Just look for something in the $15-20 range and you should be fine.
Both Skype and Google Talk have excellent voice quality. It really is amazing - even more amazing that they're both free. The quality definitely beats cell phone quality and is very close to landline quality. Google Talk is the most simple of the two with few options and simple chat and call commands. You need to have a Gmail account (Google's free email), which is still in beta testing, to use Google Talk. Gmail is still by invite only, but they're giving them away like hotcakes. If you want one, feel free to ask me.
Skype has been around longer and has several more features. The free version of Skype is very similar to Google Talk. You can also choose to get "Skype In", which gives you a real telephone number that people can call from regular phones. You can also "Skype Out" and call regular telephone numbers from your computer. They offer some very competitive rates.
Obviously, talking on your computer has its disadvantages. You're chained to your computer and if you want to do it for free you can only call people that are online and near their computer. I use VOIP to call my brother in California and it will probably save quite a bit of cash in the long run. You can always call someone on their landline or cell phone and tell them to get to their computer. A small hassle to deal with when you can make unlimited calls with great voice quality for free.
Try 'em out:
Google Talk http://www.google.com/talk
Skype http://www.skype.com
