Google Voice and Gmail may be getting hitched, allowing users to make phone calls via Google Voice through the GTalk IM interface or directly from their mail in-box.

According to the CNET article,

“…Google is testing a Web-based service within Gmail that will allow users to place phone calls from their in-boxes. It’s launched from the Google Chat window on the lower left-hand side of a Gmail page and allows users to place and receive calls from within their contacts through a user interface that strongly resembles the one used in Google Voice.”

Google Voice has been a great boon for people who want to keep records of their voicemails online, or to keep their normal phone number private, but as a service it has always routed calls through a phone. This modification will make Google Voice a lot more like other Internet VoIP offerings like Skype—which it looks like it will be in direct competition with.

On the Gmail changes front, it looks like Google has updated their e-mail service to push notifications to the iPhone. From a Unified Communications article, iPhone owners who want to know the instant they receive new mail in their Gmail in-box can now sign up for such notification. In a note of amusement, the new app supplied by Google appears to be just as annoying as the native Apple app.

The Google app will also enable pushes of Calendar notifications, popping up reminders as events approach.

And, also in Gmail news, Google has recently released features for Linux users to permit access voice and video chat. Good news for patient Linux users who have been waiting for two years for this to become available.