One of the most universally recognized services that Google (News - Alert) offers is their ultra-popular e-mail service, Gmail. This particular 100 percent free email service was recently found to actually be the most popular email in the United States. 

That is one of the reasons that BlackBerry (News - Alert) users couldn't have been very happy to hear that Google was actually dropping support for the dedicated Gmail app that is currently offered on RIM's smartphones. Google has made similar business decisions like this in the past that aren't always popular but this is one of the first that affected such a wide audience.

Did that decision have any impact on the announcement Google made today? Probably not, but the computing giant is well known in the tech community for being business savvy. The announcement they made today will certainly make Gmail users about as happy as they could be, since they will now be able to continue to make free calls inside the US and Canada through 2012. 

That particular announcement is actually a reversal of an earlier decision which saw the company offering free calling from within Gmail after 2011. Calling from inside the e-mail is as simple as opening up the chat window on the left hand side of the Gmail main page. 

As long as you have a microphone, speakers and the required voice plug-in you will be able to make a call to any number inside the United States and Canada. This is not a Skype (News - Alert) type service that only allows you to call other Skype users for free, but rather you will dial any number like you would should you be using your own phone.

When calling outside of the United States, Google is also able to compete with local telephone providers as far as rates go. Calling France and Germany costs just 10 cents per minute compared to 20 or 25 cents per minute for most phone companies. 

Calling someone in India costs just two cents per minute and calling Mexico costs just 15 cents per minute compared to nine and 33 cents when dealing with your phone company.