It was a thrill to wake up this morning, power on Gmail for BolesUniversity.com, and be greeted with an invitation to set up Google Voice for video chat and phone calling from directly inside Gmail!

Google told me to download and install the Google Voice browser plugin — but when I ran the updater on my Mac, I was told a “newer version” was already installed.

Hmm.  That was odd.  How could I already have a newer version of something I’d never installed?

I did as I was told and I canceled the Google Voice updater and tried to make a call.

No go.

I re-downloaded the Google Voice plugin and forced the update to overwrite the “newer” version I didn’t know I had.

I restarted my browsers and — Bingo! — Google Voice was alive in my life in my Google Apps Gmail!

Now I know I really don’t need Skype!

I can also see my pre-existing Google Voice call history inside Gmail.

I can even set up my voice and video chat preferences and settings from inside Gmail for Google Apps:

Google Apps keep getting better, and more valuable, with every passing moment of every single day.

I love streamlined simplicity, and Google Apps are quickly becoming the ultimate, vibrant — and burning! — fiery core of my workday.