In the spirit of graduation season, we're doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so stay tuned for more!

It wasn't until after my friends and I had graduated and left the bubble that was our college life that I realized how much I'd taken our years of proximity for granted. For four years, we were never more than a 10 minute walk or a quick bike ride away from each other. And now we're in all parts of the world, in different time zones, and sometimes separated by long flights.

If you and your friends are scattered across cities too, you should try keeping in touch with voice and video chat in Gmail. You can either make a voice call (pretty much a phone call, but it's free and you don't have to use up your cell phone minutes!), or if you have a web cam, you can make a video call to chat with friends "face to face."

To make use of this free service in Gmail:

1. Download the voice and video chat plug-in.
2. Log back into Gmail.
3. Make a voice or video call to any friend that has a camera icon next to their name in your chat list by selecting their name and clicking "Video & more."
   

So even though graduation may make you feel far away - now you can stay close with Gmail!

For more Apps news

Did you know that Google Docs is just one of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products, check out the Google Apps Blog!

Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager