Watch out Cisco, Google is gunning for you too.
The Mountain View, California, search king on Tuesday said it launched free Internet-based voice and video chat for users of its Gmail and Google Apps.
“Businesses stretched across continents andtimezones want more face-to-face collaboration among their employees, but inthis economic climate, they're looking for ways to cut travel and IT expenses,” Google said in a statement.
The move builds on the company’s popular arsenal of Internet-based productivity tools that includes instant messaging, email, and its Google Apps online office suite.
Cisco-owned WebEx offers web-based conferencing and collaboration services that start at $59 per month. That collection of web conference meeting tools includes voice over Internet among other features.
Google’s free voice and video chat launch could also strike a blow to eBay’s Skype, the Internet voice company the auction giant paid $2.6 billion to acquire in 2005.
The launch also gives the Internet advertising behemoth a leg up on rivals Microsoft and Yahoo with video chat.
"Gmail is the first leading webmail service to include video chat," Google said in the statement.
Google shares traded down $7.32, or 2.3 percent, at $311.46.