Gmail users in the US can now use the Voice & Video Chat service to make phone calls. The new service is accessed directly through Gmail’s Chat interface.
If you have a Google Voice account, the associated phone number will be used for outbound calls. You can also forward calls from Google Voice to Google Voice & Video Chat.
The included call screening feature even allows Google Voice users to listen to callers as they leave messages.
Currently calls to US numbers are free, while there is a charge for calling internationally which varies depending on the country.
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eBay has launched its new cashback rewards program this weekend, dubbed eBay Bucks, giving U.S. registered users a way to earn 2 percent back on most items they purchase through the popular auction site.
Users simply have to sign up for eBay Bucks, which is completely free, and you will be given 2 percent cashback on your purchases. That cash is then placed in your account, and can be used to take money off future purchases in the marketplace.
You must use PayPal to pay for items to get the cashback.
Furthermore, the cashback accumulates for 90 days before it is paid out to consumers.
A few categories are excluded from the earnings reward, including purchases from Classifieds, Business & Industrial Capital Equipment, Real Estate, and eBay Motors categories (except Parts & Accessories in eBay Motors).
View more details here: eBay Bucks FAQ
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Hulu, the United States’ long-time second most popular streaming video site saw its viewership nosedive for the month ended June 30th, after comScore changed their measurement methods.
In May, the site had an estimated 44 million viewers, says comScore, with that number falling to 24 million in June.
The giant drop was the largest of any of the top Internet video sites, dropping the site from second to tenth, in terms of online video traffic in the U.S.
While the number drop seems huge, the new numbers mainly underscore a different and lingering problem; the fact that measuring online audiences remains unreliable.
Three companies, ComScore, Nielsen and Quantcast, each measure differently, so numbers may be similar but never equal.
Says one digital media strategist of the difference in numbers, and the overall problem of unreliability: “You would think 15 years on, we would be in a better place. But we’re still talking about fundamental discrepancies in things like page counts.”
