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"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.

To enable the service users need to open a text chat window and click on the options tab to select "add voice/video chat". The feature requires a 2.4MB plugin to be installed, which

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is compatible with Windows XP and Vista, as well as Mac OS 10.4 and later.

The video chat feature runs on flash, just as YouTube, the video sharing site that Google purchased in 2006, and Google Video.

A video clip of the feature running can be seen on YouTube. Sadly, despite the generous space offered for email and IM storage, videos will not be logged.

Google launched its VoIP application, Google Talk, in 2005, although the feature has never before been integrated with its webmail platform.

The company has also long offered instant messaging in GMail via its own protocol, and also by adding AIM support late last year.

Check back on the PC Pro blogs later today for a first look at GMail video chat.