Posted 09/15/09 at 06:02:56 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Facebook will soon be at your eardrums as Boston-based tech firm Vivox is busy giving the finishing touches to its voice chat offering for Facebook. Vivox identifies itself as the leading provider of voice chat services for online games and virtual worlds. The service is currently in closed beta and only a few weeks away from launch.

Users will have to download a plug-in before they can begin using the voice chat service, a Vivox undertaking independent from Facebook. Non-Facebook users will also be able to join conversations using free dial-in numbers. The company will provide its technology to any third party apps developer willing to integrate it in its Facebook apps.

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Posted 11/11/08 at 04:11:12 PM by Alex Castle

Google’s been on a real spree lately, rolling out one improvement after another for their Gmail service. Looks like that’s not about to stop, as they’ve just announced that the service's built-in messenger will be getting noticeably beefier with the addition of voice and video chat.

The feature will be built right into the Gmail page (no client download required) and will allow anyone to chat in real time with other Gmail users. Google has posted a video showing off how the feature functions, and frankly it looks pretty damn cool.

The service certainly isn’t as full featured as voice-chat top-dog Skype (it cannot, for instance, connect to a regular phone), but it looks like it might be just the thing for a quick chat with someone you’ve been talking to with email or Gmail’s chat. And, knowing Google, it’s probably just a matter of time until the service’s features are fully fleshed out.

The service is available now, and requires a plugin download.

Do you use video or voice chat on your computer? Will you give Gmail’s new service a try? Let us know after the jump.

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