ReadWriteWeb

Google today announced a major update for Gmail: video and voice chat. To make this work, users only have to install a small browser plugin. Google will start enabling these new features for all Gmail and Google Apps users at 12pm PST today. As is typical for new releases in Gmail, Google will roll this feature out to all users over the "next day or so."

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.

Automated translation services seem to be getting more and more traction these days. Today, we saw announcements about new translation related products from both Microsoft and telephony service JahJah. Microsoft announced that it will be giving its users a free update that will integrate Windows Live Translator into MS Office 2003 and 2007, while JaJah is now offering free voice translations from Mandarin into English through JaJah Babel.

Multimedia messaging service Utterz is launching an expanded offering Monday morning that will allow users from 17 additional countries outside of the US to post to the service with their mobile phones. Utterz combines voice, video, photos and text to facilitate conversations either on the Utterz site, through Twitter or on your own blog off-site.

In addition to the local phone numbers for 17 additional countries, Utterz is also launching threaded conversations (small but important), webcam video capture and a newly designed site. The cow motif will likely stay, but whatever. (Update: Upon seeing the relaunched site, there's actually a whole lot less cow action! I kind of miss the cow, now that it's gone.)