Google enters the phone business ... well, it tried to

Hours since it was leaked that Google is working on providing free VoIP calls from within Gmail, Gtalk and Google Voice, I got a pop up in my Gmail asking me to install a plugin, and then it showed me this:

 That's the good news. The bad news is that it froze both Chrome and IE. I didn't even bother trying it in Firefox. I did manage to make two of our phones ring, but that's about it. I have a very fast dual core laptop on Windows 7-64, and everything ground to a halt every time I tried to place a phone call.

I bet somebody screwed up and let too many people start using the service at the same time. As a norm Google services are released in a staggered fashion, but this just came up and I am sure I can't be the only one having trouble with this. 

That said, it is interesting the timing of this release when the people that make the Magic Jack promised a free VoIP service two weeks ago and is already late by close to a week. I guess we'll see about that ...



UPDATE: I tried it from Ivette's laptop, which is not as powerful as mine, and hers (also Windows 7-64) worked fine. I guess I have a problem with my audio drivers.
UPDATE 2: I had a problem with my audio drivers, it works really damn nice. 

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