Google opens video chat directly from iGoogle homepage

August 21, 2009 | Kim-Mai Cutler | Comments | |

picture-102To try and make its personalized homepage, iGoogle, a little stickier, Google is allowing video chat directly from site.

To use it, you have to download a free plug-in. Then you can go on and video chat with anyone like you might with Gtalk. Your friends don’t have to have Gmail accounts to participate. All they need is a generic Google account.

The video chat is part of a push to make iGoogle more social, moving it more into Facebook’s territory. A week ago the company added a number of gadgets including games like Scrabble and media-sharing widgets from YouTube and the Huffington Post to make the page more of a personalized portal with content from friends.

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About the Author, Kim-Mai Cutler

Kim-Mai was born and raised a stone's throw from Apple headquarters in Cupertino by a devout Hewlett-Packard family. After attending UC Berkeley, Kim-Mai worked for Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires in New York, Los Angeles, London and Buenos Aires. Follow her on Twitter at @kimmaicutler, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • bryo
    It's going to be a race to be the communication headquarters of the internet (video and voice), and Facebook cannot be stopped. Look for Apple to enter the race in the near future.

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    www.earningschatter.com
  • bryo
    ..
  • Skype under pressure... Google opens video chat directly from iGoogle homepage
  • frenchtranslation
    Wow this feature is great!Google is and will be the best SE ever!Do you know when this will be available?
  • Sorry ,but i forgot to ask you: are you offer rss feed?