Google has brought video and voice chat to GMail, adding a further string to the bow of what is already the most fully featured free webmail service.

"We've made it easy enough that your mom - or your employees - will actually use it," says the Google homepage, which runs through the simple setup procedure.

The new chat functionality will work on PCs with Windows XP or Vista, as well as on Macs with OS X 10.4 or later. The plugin will work with all the major browsers, including Google's own Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari.

From what we have seen so far, the videos integrate directly with the standard chat function in Google. To get started, you have to first enable this new functionality from the 'Options' menu at the bottom of a Gmail chat window. After that, all you have to do is select the contact you want to speak with and click on 'Video & more' in the lower-left part of the chat window. From there, you can then start a voice or video chat.

Gmail Video and Voice will be made available to all Gmail users starting Tuesday at noon PST. Global rollout should be complete by the end of the day. To see if you have it, open a chat with someone (you don't actually have to message them). If your account is video-enabled, at the lower left of the chat window, there will be an interface element labeled "Video & more." When you click on that it will walk you through installing the plug-in. If you want to make a video call to someone who hasn't yet installed the plug-in, you'll be able to invite them to do so. (In my early test of the service, this feature wasn't yet enabled).

The existing downloadable Google Talk application, which has supported voice chat for a while, only later may get the video capability. The Google people I spoke with were noncommittal.