Skype

Today in Tech: News around the Web

A round-up of the companies, deals, and trends that made headlines.

Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the day's most newsworthy bits below.

Google Voice Android widgets leaked

An upcoming release of the T-Mobile G2 build was leaked, along with some new Google Voice widgets.

While they don't offer VoIP, the widgets that were extracted from an unreleased T-Mobile G2 build allow easy access to Google Voices features, demonstrated below.

Google (GOOG) released Voice on Gmail last week in a surprise move that had many thinking Google was targeting Skype and Facebook. Having a full Google Voice VoIP application on MORE

Google Voice calls skyrocket to 1 million/day on Gmail

My account hasn't even been activated yet.

Wow, how is that for scale?  Google tweeted today that it had already surpassed the 1 million call mark on its first day of Google Voice integration with Gmail. And not everyone has even had their Gmail accounts integrated yet (like me!).

In a tweet on their official feed, Google (GOOG) said:

Over 1,000,000 calls placed from Gmail in just 24 hours! Thanks to everyone using MORE

Goldman: Google Voice about Facebook, not telcos

The investment bank's analysts think that the phone service in Gmail isn't about the smaller Skype picture, it is about social networking and taking on Facebook.

In a note to investors today, Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell says that Google's VoIP move will beef up its Social Networking status, rather than put it in a position to becoming a virtual telco.  Verizon (VZ) and Google are very chummy these days so the move was likely MORE

Google Voice to become Skype-killer tomorrow?

Google is opening its Voice service to work within a Gmail window according to reports.  An announcement tomorrow is too much of a coincidence.

We know two things that very well may change the way you communicate over phones forever:

One: Google is having a press event tomorrow morning to unveil something exciting.  We don't know what.

Two: Users of Gmail are starting to see some exciting little extras in their Gmail chat MORE

Why Verizon and Skype's backdoor deal hurts Android

The pact has effectively meant disabled Skype for Verizon users and locked out Android users on other carriers.

In February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Verizon and Skype announced a partnership that would put Skype on most of Verizon's Smartphones including BlackBerry and Android devices.

But this isn't Skype like you'll find on an iPhone, Symbian phone or computer.  Verizon's brand of Skype, which rolled out to BlackBerries and Android MORE

Skype's $200 million ad opportunity

The video chat service is mostly free, for now. But if Skype just tiptoes into the advertising business, its returns could be massive.

Apart from Google (GOOG), Skype may be the largest consumer site on the web without a banner ad. So when the company filed its prospectus with the SEC Monday in preparation for an initial public offering, I noted with interest that advertising was called out as one of MORE

Google VoIP Desktop grass roots campaign starts

Google had reportedly nixed their desktop Skype killer in favor of a browser-based version.  Now, a petition has started for Google to release the desktop client.

Backstory: Google purchased VoIP provider Gizmo5 last year in a move which seemed to indicate that they were going to merge their Google Voice and Google Talk clients to make a Skype-like service that would be able to call traditional phone numbers.

Since that point not MORE

Google's Skype-killer spotted?

It is only a matter of time before Google's purchase of Gizmo5 turns into a VoIP service that is integrated to Google Voice.  Is this the first sign of it?

The (unofficial)  Google Operating System Blog has a supposed screenshot of what the Google web-based Skype-like client would look like.

It appears to be in the new web-based Talk window that is in your Gmail or iGoogle homepage.

Google purchased a company MORE

A dark horse emerges in web conferencing

With ownership of the SMB market, is Citrix Online a threat to Cisco?

Hoopla around Google Wave service, launched publicly in September, has brought resurgence to the idea of unified communications -- a single platform that integrates voice, email, fax (really!), chat, and web conferencing. Long a dream of the telecommunications industry, unified communications is gaining some buzz among corporate tech teams as a possible tool for enhancing employee productivity.

As tech MORE