Okay since I’m such a fan of using free services, I tested GMail’s Voice and Video Chat Plugin today. It’s really cool!

GMail Voice and Video Chat Plugin is a free service (at least throughout the rest of this year I heard) integrated with Gmail (and Google Voice if you have it) so it can be used right from within your browser and with an Internet connection (great if you have crappy cell phone service at home).  Just use your microphone  (just audio chat) or webcam (for video chat) while using inside Gmail.

Call Phones from Gmail

Video is courtesy of Google. Check out the Official Gmail Blog for more information.

You can also customize your messenger preferences by clicking the Chat tab located on the GMail Settings page.

So here’s how it works:

1. You click on “Call phone” located at the top of the chat list;
2. When the dialpad pop up, dial a number you want to call (use area code) or type name of contact currently in your list.  Remember, US and Canada calls are only FREE right now. There are low rates for international calls.
3. And voila! Call will connect and you’ll enjoy a great conversation right from your computer! The voice quality is great too.

So go ahead and try it for yourself and download the GMail Voice and Video Chat Plugin and you can make calls to any U.S. or Canadian phone number directly from Gmail. And did I mention it was FREE

Next, I’ll try the Gmail Video Chat! Who wants to try it with me???

I’ve found lots of free resources that have been helpful to me and my partners so I wanted to share these with you. These resources are great for personal and/or business use and can greatly reduce time, add value to your website, and are absolutely great to use! Enjoy!

Free Software #1: WordPress
http://www.wordpress.org

WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing/blog/website platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

Free Software #2: OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org

OpenOffice is the free version of Microsoft Office.  It is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It works on all common computers and stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

Free Software #3: PrimoPDF
http://www.primopdf.com

Create PDF files faster with the only free PDF creator to support one-click, drag-and-drop PDF creation. You can convert to PDF from any file you can print, including Microsoft^® Word, Excel^®, and PowerPoint^® formats.

Free Software #4: Gimp
http://www.gimp.org

GIMP is a versatile graphics manipulation package. You can edit graphics, photos, and more. This is another free source program that often beats the paid solutions available.

Free Software #5: Gimpshop
http://plasticbugs.com/?page_id=294

This is a free add-on to make Gimp operate more like Photoshop. Many of the menus and other elements are very similar to Photoshop, so this becomes a nice alternative.

Free Software #6: Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It as a very good solution for editing your audio files either for online use or for CDs you develop.

Free Software #7: CamStudio
http://www.swftools.com/tools-details.php?tool=8162413051

Record audio and video from your screen directly to flash. No question about it. I prefer Camtasia Studio over this free version as it has many more features, but Camtasia Studio also costs $300 after your trial is over. If that’s out of your budget, here’s your alternative.

Free Software #8: PowerBullet
http://www.powerbullet.com

Create slideshows, auto-running presentations, and more. Very nice finished product. You can output the finished presentation as Flash or executable. The executable format is nice for tutorials and software documentation.

Free Software #9: Gmail
http://www.gmail.com

A lot of people love Outlook or Eudora, and I was a diehard Outlook user for years. I now prefer Gmail as it also includes free, over the air (OTA) updates to my cell phone. You can have it pick up email from all your addresses and set to reply from each address. My favorite part…since it’s web based I can use one computer at home and my laptop when I’m traveling without transferring anything over.

Free Software #10: FileZilla
http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla/

Open source FTP client for Window’s computers. You’ll need this for uploading and downloading files, pages, videos, PDFs, and more to your website.

Free Software #11: Teleconference Calls
http://www.totallyfreeconferencecalls.com

Not really software, but it belongs on this list anyway. Set-up your own conference call line with unlimited usage for up to 99 lines for free. Instant Conference is another company that does this for up to 150 lines.

Free Software #12: Skype
http://www.skype.com

With Skype’s free software – by the way, it works seamlessly with your internet connection – you can chat away with free Skype-to-Skype calls and never worry about cost, time or distance. Share the love and get your friends to download Skype so you can talk, instant message (IM) or make video calls for nothing.

Free Software #13: Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics/

Google Analytics is installed on almost all of my websites (and it should be on all of them). Simply add their code to the bottom of each of your pages and watch them track everything for your site. You can even set “goals” for your site such as subscriptions or sales by adding the code to your thank you pages. Check on your conversion rates from your traffic this way. This is the basics of tracking your traffic at your site. Install it now.

Free Software #14: eFax
https://www.efax.com/en/efax/twa/signupFree?rqcp=1

I don’t use a fax very often. Those are one of those old tools or something people used to use before email I think. But once in a while I need to fax something out like a contract or a client wants to fax me over something. My fax number is from eFax. You can fax and receive faxes right from your computer.

Free Software #15: osTicket
http://osticket.com

Set up your own support ticket system to handle any customer inquiries. Email is unreliable and a little harder for a team to track. There are several free support ticket options available. osTicket is one of the good ones.

Free Software #16: AVG
http://free.grisoft.com/

This is virus protection software. If you work online a lot, you will be exposed to viruses. Protect your computer with their free version or their paid version. I’ve found their software puts a lighter load on your processing power than most of the other options out there.

Screengrab! is another great, free extension that makes it easy to save a web page as an image – it’s a screen capture tool for Firefox!

With it, you can save anything that you can see in a browser window – from a small selection, to a complete page.  I also use Snagit (a more robust, paid screen capture software) but if you want something that is free and easy to use, try ScreenGrab! now.

Basically Screengrab! let’s you take what you want from a web-page: the entire scrollable document, just the visible bit, or a draggable selection. Screengrab will even save just the contents of an individual frame.

Screengrab! captures Flash and Java applets as long as you have Java installed.

I’ve used both ScreenGrab! and Snagit and they each have their qualities, but again, if you just want a free solution to capturing images from the web, ScreenGrab! will quickly and easily do the job.

Calling all Bloggers!! Here’s another great reason to use Firefox, the faster, more secure, and fully customizable browser and soon to be number one browser! Okay, enough about Firefox and on to the real reason for this post (wink).

If you blog and write posts (about anything; it doesn’t matter the topic!) and want to make sure you optimize each post to the appropriate keywords, then look no further than the SEO Blogger plugin for Firefox.

SEO Blogger is a free Firefox plugin that gives bloggers a mini version of the Wordtracker keyword research tool in their editing window.

It saves you a lot of time, allows you to stay focused on your current task (writing that next great article), and compares keywords instantly – all without leaving the Firefox window!

The image below shows my screen as I’m writing this article and using SEO Blogger in the same browser window:

The tool sits alongside whatever blog publishing software you’re using so you can do keyword research and optimize your posts as you write. Then, simply hit “Publish” – and you’re done!

So as a designer, I was curious as to what grade my own site will receive and if I designed my site properly. And, yes, I am not ashamed to say that I did not get an A – at least by the SiteReportCard’s website. Am I shocked? NO.

SiteReportCard is a very useful FREE service that helps you identify broken links, website load time analysis, HTML validation, and much more.

My site, and any site that I create, is already built with web standards in mind and is XHTML and CSS validated.

But I wanted to see what this site had to say about mine. So what were my results?

Well, there were 6 warnings, a high load time, and several possible misspellings. However, here are what the results indicated:

• the warnings were not completely valid/useful so really not much to correct;
• the high load time of 190 seconds is misleading as that’s the reported load time for someone using a 28.8K speed modem;
• and the misspellings included my company name (yes, it’s spelled funny – Xtreme Designz), blog (not sure why their dictionary isn’t updated to include that web 2.0 term by now), the word Skype, and e-commerce (though there are several ways people spell this word, including “eCommerce” with the capital “C”). It did find a legitimate misspelled word for which I am very grateful!

So what do I give myself overall? An A of course!!

Try using this FREE service on one of the URLs on your site and see what results you get. It’s at least a good start to figuring out how to make your site better.

Oh and if you need help in making some of the corrections for your site, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m around!