Google takes two with Gmail-SMS chat
Google hopes the second time will be a charm for a Gmail Labs feature that lets people send text messages to people's mobile phones with the company's Web-based e-mail service.
"A few weeks back, we ran into a few snags when we first started rolling this out, but starting today you can turn on text messaging for chat," said Leo Dirac, a Google product manager, in a blog post Wednesday.
After the feature's fleeting debut in October, Google removed it to fix a problem where turning the feature on didn't actually fully turn it on. It took a little longer than two weeks, though.
Gmail is trying again with a feature to send SMS messages from Gmail Chat.
(Credit: Google)The feature is available only in the United States for now. To use it, people must first enable it through Gmail Labs, then they can initiate SMS-based instant message chats by typing in a phone number in the chat box on the left of the Gmail page.
People who receive SMS messages from the service will get a return phone number from the 406 area code, which Dirac was happy to point out spells G0O.
Each pairing uses a unique phone number, so a person receiving messages can store a the 406 phone number on his or her phone for future use to communicate with that specific person.
Tactfully, Dirac also observes that sending SMS messages from Gmail might be costing your buddies money, so be judicious.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
Much better than the old Send to Phone http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/sendtophone/faq.html if you asked me.
KieranMullen
http://360oregon.com
However, you might as well don't bother because the service is horrible and that's being nice. I know it's free, beta, labs and all other nicely wrapped labels, but come on. As Boodle described, there was a delay when someone responds, however that was in the beginning. Now it's even worse! In last two days I send over 10 sms to people with different carriers and sometimes it takes an hour and sometimes few hours for them to get my message. Some - never got it! When they respond I usually get it in my inbox because it's middle of the night and I'm not next to my computer. Google should maybe do some testing before they announce something as a big deal that others, e.g. Yahoo Mail (don't like them either) had years ago!
- by KIRANBAN September 12, 2009 5:12 AM PDT
- HELLO
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